'Apocalypse Z: New World' Is Intense, Action-Packed Nonsense

Apocalypse Z: New World is the sequel to 2024’s Spanish zombie action-thriller Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End, and it reunites director Carles Torrens with writer Ángel Agudo. Did I know Apocalypse Z: New World was a sequel when I sat down to watch it? I did not. Does it matter? It does not. The film isn’t difficult to follow, and yet it’s also complete nonsense. But it’s intense, breakneck zombie nonsense, which is often the best kind of nonsense there is.

In Apocalypse Z: New World, the TSJ virus has already overrun the planet. What is the TSJ virus? Doesn’t matter. It turns people into zombies: fast, feral, 28 Days Later zombies. A cluster of survivors has holed up in the Canary Islands, which they’ve managed to seal off from the rest of the world. The problem is that they need supplies, and the supplies are in Madrid. Practically everyone on the islands has been drilled in zombie combat, including Roberto (Carlos Alcaide), and a handful of them get tapped for the run.

Roberto is the son of a wealthy, powerful man who may or may not have had a hand in unleashing the virus. Nobody trusts Roberto, because he was an entitled rich kid. But he’s here now, slogging through the mission with the rest of the unit. And it turns out he’s pretty good at it.

That’s the setup. Beyond that, it’s people in fatigues emptying magazines into zombie hordes, zombies smashing through doors, gates, and walls, and the same people in fatigues beating a retreat when the ammo runs dry, because there aren’t enough bullets in the world to put down all these zombies. Characters mourn the people they’ve lost along the way. They bond. Roberto earns their trust. Then they discover there are still survivors in Madrid, so they mount a rescue. A politician more or less tells Roberto he’s off the hook, but Roberto is like, “Nah, I’m not leaving my people.” And then come a lot more zombies and a lot more shooting.

Is it ever clear what’s happening? Rarely. Is there a plan? Sort of. Do they pull it off? Apparently. It’s hard to track anything amid all the shooting and running and zombie hordes, but it’s the shooting and running and zombie hordes that ultimately make Apocalypse Z: New World a semi-worthwhile endeavor. If you like the zombie genre, anyway. And I do.

There’s nothing new here, nothing that hasn’t been done a million times. But the action sequences hit hard, even if it’s impossible to tell what’s going on in them. Honestly, that didn’t bother me much. I was happy to strap in for the ride. It’s a movie about people who keep running out of bullets, but it never runs out of momentum.