Izla – Netflix Review (2/5)

IZLA on Netflix is a new horror-comedy from the Philippines. It’s a classic zombie B-movie that delivers on its premise but nothing more. If you like this particular niche, it should entertain you just fine. Read our full Izla movie review here and find it on Netflix!

IZLA is a new Netflix horror-comedy from the Philippines. I don’t know what I expected, but apart from the opening scene – which does feature some kinda creepy moments – you’ll have to settle for comedy for a long time before more horror scenes.

In fact, while the plot revolves around the infamous “forbidden island”, you’ll have to wait 30 minutes before anyone actually goes there. With a runtime of just 1 hour and 25 minutes, that’s a long time to wait. The comedy does work pretty well in this movie, so as long as you’re good with that, you should be pleased. I just expected more!

Continue reading our Izla movie review here and find it on Netflix now.

Two brothers and a group of Vloggers

The main story revolves around two brothers. They are actually very charming and entertaining – in other words, they certainly did make me laugh (or snort-giggle) a few times. While trying to make ends meet and pay off their debt, they do whatever they can to make a bit extra cash.

That’s where the group of female Vloggers come in. They need some new content for their channel, so they can keep the fans happy (or rather, the views up).

If this concept sounds strangely familiar, it might be because the French horror duo Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury used a similar premise in the recently released The Deep House.

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Our review of The Deep House – which is not a horror-comedy – here >

Izla is solid B-movie fun

Izla is a very different story from The Deep House since it features zombies and is placed solidly in the horror-comedy hybrid genre. The brothers take the female Vloggers to the “Forbidden Island” which has quite a few surprises in store. Yes, including zombies!

In general, I should say that Filipino genre movies can be very entertaining and have high production value.

DO CHECK OUT

Our review of the Filipino horror movie Eerie (also on Netflix) here >

Izla is not one of the movies I would say is “high quality” in any way. However, to be fair, that’s not what this movie is trying to be either. Instead, it’s a very typical B-movie style of a horror movie. You should watch it as such or it will most definitely disappoint.

Watch Izla on Netflix now!

The director of Izla is Barry Gonzalez who I’m not exactly familiar with. Based on his IMDb page, it would appear that he has worked a lot within the rom-com genre as well as other romance-affiliated genres. That might explain why the focus is more on the fun and cheesy elements than the horror.

The script was written by Ays De Guzman (as Ice De Gusman) but the story concept has a total of five credits. That should tell you a lot about why this movie seems to be going in a few too many directions. The idea is actually pretty solid, but the execution and storyline details are all over the place.

As a whole, Izla is a classic zombie B-movie that delivers on its premise. Well, except for having too few zombies until the final third, where there are many zombies. If you like the very goofy horror-comedy niche, this Netflix addition should entertain you just fine.

IZLA is out on Netflix from November 25, 2021.

Details about IZLA

Director: Barry Gonzalez
Screenplay: Ays De Guzman
Cast: Paolo Contis, Archie Alemania, Beauty Gonzalez, Isabelle Daza, Elisse Joson, Sunshine Garcia, Analyn Barro, Aiko Climaco
Shooting location: Dapitan, Zamboanga Del Norte, Philippines