QUEENS OF THE DEAD is a 2025 zombie comedy written and directed by Tina Romero. Yes, that Tina Romero. The one who was in LAND OF THE DEAD.

Oh shit, yeah — and also George Romero’s daughter. She’s continuing the family business in the sense that she made a movie and it’s zombies and it’s a diverse cast and it contains commentary about our times. But she’s got her own thing going stylistically and tonally – this is flashy, neon, and undeniably a comedy. It cares about its characters and the deaths can hurt, but laughs are the priority, scares are not.

Now, I don’t want this to sound wrong, but just for context I don’t really follow or get drag. I did recently enjoy THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT and I think that gave me some appreciation for the artistry and humor of it, but it’s not really a tradition I relate to I guess. So I have no clue how this plays to people who are closer to that world. I tried to sell a drag-savvy co-worker on it and he seemed skeptical.

But personally I was very impressed by the character credited as “ZombiQueen” (Julie J, whose IMDb “Known for” section includes Bang Bus and Street Blowjobs). She opens the movie strutting into a church, meticulously decked in gaudy rhinestones, giant blue hair, silver boots and nails, on a mission to pray to God because “after the day I’ve had I need a word with Her.” But her day gets worse. She gets a chunk of her shoulder (and costume) bit off by a zombified priest.

(You know how the very best zombie movie DAWN OF THE DEAD gets a pulpy feel by giving the zombies blue faces? In this one they’re metallic. Silver or gold. It’s beautiful.)

Thankfully there was not one moment of this movie that felt to me like it was trying to be Important. But for those of us who do recognize representation as important or at least good there’s something pretty great going on here. There’s only one cis-het character in the main cast, but also there’s diversity among the others – drag queens, trans men, non-binary characters, gay men and women with a variety of gender presentations (not to mention ethnic backgrounds). And a nice thing about that is that there’s no pressure to follow that horror-busting instinct to treat certain characters as precious, and it’s not an affront to any community when a drag queen bites it (strike that – reverse it) in the opening scene. In fact it’s an honor. Some will live live, some will die and walk the earth, nobody has to be left out of the fun.

This ZombiQueen becomes the central and most memorable zombie character, the Big Daddy if you will, and she’s a really good one. A good drag queen, it seems to me, is an expert in movement, and here that expertise is being used to mix the exaggerated femininity with the clumsiness of the walking dead, crookedly stumbling in heels.

Her silhoutte and her hand make for an iconic monster look and her face becomes a mix of drag makeup and ghoul – exaggerated brow and eyebrows – that the unsuspecting living will mistake for just a fun drag theme as she carries this plague to the film’s primary location.

Romero’s dad had his farmhouse, his shopping mall, his underground military base. She has a night club in Bushwick called Yum, where performers are rehearsing a Mary, Jesus and bunnies themed drag show, because it’s Easter. The show’s promoter/DJ Dre (Katy O’Brian, LOVE LIES BLEEDING, CHRISTY) and her intern Kelsey (Jack Haven, I SAW THE TV GLOW) are freaking out because everything is going wrong and a bunch of people are calling out, most crucially the headliner Yasmine (Dominique Jackson, CHICK FIGHT), who claims to be sick but is actually standing them up to do a promotional event for GlitterBitch Vodka.

The show must go on for veteran queen Ginsey Tonic (Nina West, who played Divine in WEIRD: THE AL YANKOVIC STORY), though she has tensions with bitchy non-binary newcomer/Oxy dealer Scrumptious (Tomás Matos, FIRE ISLAND). Dre’s wife Lizzy (Riki Lindhome, THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT) is working a shift at the hospital but she saves the day by convincing her co-worker Sam (Jaquel Spivey, MEAN GIRLS 2024) to return to Yum to reprise his once beloved drag persona Samoncé.

Romero, co-writing with comedian Erin Judge, invests in the regular non-zombie issues in the characters’ lives, particularly Sam’s struggles with stage fright, having infamously walked out on a gig and abandoned drag for some amount of time. He spends most of the movie in a drab t-shirt, hesitant to even get into costume, which makes Dre and others worry they can’t count on him.

Dre also doesn’t have much faith in her doofus brother-in-law Barry (Quincy Dunn-Baker, NO HARD FEELINGS) who Lizzy sent to fix the toilet, which will turn out to be clogged with a dead rat. Barry is introduced listening to a podcast called Be a Man About It and yells out “grown man with man parts coming through” at one point, but here’s the strongest evidence that Romero is less cynical than her father: she makes Barry a lovable character who’s just kinda behind and willing to make an effort to catch up. He doesn’t know his mistake when he praises Ginsey’s jokes by saying “That’s funny. I like this guy. Who is this guy?” or when he addresses ZombiQueen as “pal.” A triumphant moment in the movie is when, after having hung around here for an evening, he’s able to casually drop a they/them pronoun.

I think the second most prominent straight/cis character is a minor one, an influencer at the GlitterBitch event (Sarah Coffey, CITIZEN WEINER) who sees Yasmine and says to her boyfriend (Kimball Farley, HIPPO), “Oh. Babe, look. Let’s bank some pictures for Pride.” Before they’re zombie-fied in a photo booth the boyfriend obliviously sucks on a dick-shaped, white-frosted pastry on a stick. There’s also a pretty good joke where our heroes are confronted by cops who turn out to be Youtube pranksters. Yes, I believe people will still be trying to make content during the zombie apocalypse.

Yasmine and Scrumptious are influencers too, I suppose. They have bedazzled phone cases and do livestreams. Romero’s most obvious but most perfect modern touch is that the zombies lumber around holding phones in front of their faces…

…and one of her best visual choices is that almost all of them were headed to Yum anyway, so they’re dressed up. The emergency spreads across New York but authorities (including mayor Tom Savini, one of several nods to the original Living Dead trilogy) tell everybody to shelter in place.

Of course the ZombiQueen fits right in at Yum, and there’s some good jokes about her trying to attack people on the dance floor and nobody noticing. Barry is the first to notice her biting someone, but he throws a fire ax that misses her and hits Kelsey in the leg. “That was unintended,” he explains.

Okay, that was not one of Barry’s better moments, but he’s glad to be around helping to keep everybody safe. I think there are three instances of him saying he’s going to “secure the premises,” which seems to make him feel useful. Everybody has their role.

It’s largely a siege movie, with site-specific techniques such as using bar stools to corral a zombie into a go-go cage, firing confetti cannons or stabbing with drink stirrers. First there’s disagreement about whether these really are zombies, but information spreads in that very modern way that Kelsey has a cousin who’s a firefighter who posted about “what to do when you encounter aggressive or nonverbal behavior.” His advice: “Destroy the brain. Hashtag decapitate.”

I think Romero recognizes that zombie killing has been done to death, so she doesn’t spend the whole movie on it, and when she does it’s visually interesting and novel just because these are not usually the type of people you see on either side of that battle.

There’s an equivalent to DAWN OF THE DEAD’s plans to leave the area in a helicopter. Kelsey’s butch fiancée Poppy Callahan Esquire (Margaret Cho, FACE/OFF) and her non-binary sidekicks show up on razor scooters saying they have a spot on a ferry that’s leaving at dawn. “Women, NB and family only.”

“That’s all of us,” says Ginsey.

Poppy is macho and wears coveralls but has a drill covered in glitter that she uses to lobotomize zombies. She seems to have no problem with it until one of her friends gets bit, and then they make a nice rule that you don’t pre-emptively kill the infected, you let them stick around until they change, “Because shit’s bad as it is already,” Scrumptious figures.

To some of us this is a Katy O’Brian vehicle. It’s not as distinct of a role as LOVE LIES BLEEDING of course, but it shows that she can be a compelling everyperson lead. She just looks so cool and can do fight scenes but also oozes warmth and sincerity. Cho’s probly the biggest name in the cast, though, and you can see why she’d be excited to drop in. SPOILER: Poppy dies yelling “LABIA!” and electrocuting herself as a swarm of zombie rats eat her alive. The 21st century answer to “Choke on ’em!”

Yeah, there are some sad moments, but the more memorable ones are the joyful ones, like when Dre decides to stop sitting around worrying and put some music on the turntables. What is she doing? “I’m doing what we do.” But why during a life or death situation? “It’s both. It’s always both.” Even Barry says, “I guess we’re dancing,” and they all dance together. THIS IS ZION! Dearly beloved we are gathered here today to get through this thing called life. You know I’m a sucker for that shit.

Of course we’re also building to the triumphant return of Samoncé during the climax. I love that they just open the doors and let the zombies in. Then they put on a different type of show.

When I finished QUEENS OF THE DEAD I thought of it more as an evening’s disposable entertainment than a great movie, but it has stuck with me more than I expected. I doubt I’ll ever add it to my regular rotation of DEAD rewatches with NIGHT, DAWN, DAY and RETURN OF THE, but I do think it’s a special one. It’s funny and sweet and unlike anything else in the subgenre. I’m sure many queer people enjoy having such a queer-specific zombie comedy, but as a person who still feels like I’m not supposed to type that word because it used to be a slur, I also felt welcomed to the party. All are invited, I think.

(It’s not on physical media yet, but you can find it on Shudder.)