Wild, indeed. When all of Japan is seemingly overtaken by a horde of charmingly old fashioned flying saucers (the pie tin kind), who can the Japanese call? Why, "Guitar Wolf", of course! Complete with leather, chains, cool shades and a bad attitude, it's up to the Guitar Wolf band to save the day, in their typically idiosyncratic and rock and roll fueled way. Along the way are a group of small time and hilariously inept bandits and Guitar Wolf's biggest fan, Ace. Will this motley crew be able to save the country from seeming destruction, or will rock and roll (and the rest of the world) truly die? And will Guitar Wolf finally be able to shake their nefarious and embittered manager? The result is a consistently entertaining and ingratiating horror comedy.

Certainly no great shakes in the plot department, WILD ZERO sheds its well-worn narrative shell for badass leather duds and flaming exhaust pipes. It's ironic that such a uniquely American tradition as rock n' roll is so achingly alive here, in the most unimaginable of places. The kitschy rock and roll edge blended with trendy Japanese pop culture gives WILD ZERO a leg-up from such related genre homage's as the SCREAM series, THE DEAD HATE THE LIVING, and WILD ZERO'S most similar cousin, Hong Kong's BIO-ZOMBIE. Thankfully, the film refrains from a constant stream of annoyingly obvious nods to genre standbys and subsequently rarely insults the viewer's intelligence. And when a landmark horror film is indeed cited, it is truly inspired, such as when our rock and roll heroes bicker in disbelief that none of them have seen NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, and as a result they have no knowledge of how to dispatch of the zombies!

Speaking of the zombies, WILD ZERO doesn't disappoint in the gore and visceral FX department. The zombies themselves are a touching tribute to the ghoulish craftsmanship of Romero favorite FX man Tom Savini. The walking dead are decidedly simple here, wearing street clothes and adorned with nothing other than simple blue face paint. Sorry, no gruesome, fresh-from-the-grave maggots and rotting flesh can be found here. Effectively balancing the rather Spartan zombie makeup is the excellent CGI gore effects. While certainly a far cry from Savini's earthy, homemade gore and animal intestines, the CG effects thankfully blend quite well into the live action and rarely sport the glossy, flawless look that so often plagues big budget Hollywood films. In addition to the expected assortment of exploding heads, juicy squibs and gut munching, there is a seemingly grating but eventually delightful amount of otherworldly optical effects. Guitar Wolf seem to have a never ending amount of sparkling (and deadly) weapons at their disposal that erupt into giant fizzes of electric light and frightening pillars of flame. And adding to the already dense cloud of noise pollution of sonic explosions and gunfire, a refreshingly rebellious rock soundtrack pounds away in the background, with hilariously awful subtitles mangling the lyrics. Indeed, it may not be so much the fault of the subtitles (which are generally quite good in the dialog scenes) but the fact that it is a nearly impossible task to translate Japanese rock lyrics into smooth English. Inevitably, something is lost in the translation, but thankfully WILD ZERO keeps moving at such a breakneck pace that you won't mind too much.

Director Tetsuro Takeushi has succeeded in blending his brash and fun rock videos (he is a rather prevalent Asian rock video director) with modern Japanese culture and the trapping of a well-worn horror genre and making it new again. Certainly the film isn't flawless, as it does tend to drag at more than one occasion, but the viewer will invariably find it difficult to dislike such a film. WILD ZERO'S never-mind-the-bullocks approach to narrative structure and credibility allow it an inherent charm that lets it get away with the most wild and improbable of situations. Taken as a whole, WILD ZERO is a film with guaranteed cult status and will hopefully prove a working model for other prospective young filmmakers to follow.