IIZ: Indian Institute of Zombies Movie Review: A zom-com campus satire that lacks bite

Story: College toppers at the Indian Institute of Innovation turn into flesh-eating zombies. Backbenchers, led by Professor Breganza (Anupriya Goenka), team up to stop the attack.Review: If there’s ever a zombie outbreak at an elite engineering institute, one would expect the brainy toppers to save the day. But what if the task is left to the backbench no-gooders? In this horror-comedy, they are the only ones who skip the Indian Institute of Innovation’s Tekfest 2026, where an evil Dr. Darwendra (Mohan Kapur) tricks the attendees into drinking a potion that promises to make them superhumans. The only side effect is immortality! Unbeknownst to the consumers, the ‘nectar’ will turn them into zombies.The scientist then plans to make them infect the lake on the college campus, and eventually spread the contagion to the city and the nation. It is up to the bright and brave Prof Breganza and her team of louts — Rambo (Sachin Kavetham), Haggu (Tanishq Chaudhary), Virat Sharma (Shiva Brijrani), and Bhim Bhayankar (Jesse Lever) — along with Kiran (Rose Sardana) and nerd Kitaab Shivdasani (Ranjan Raj), to stop the catastrophe.The tricky part of pulling off a zom-com is making the absurdity relatable. A zombie outbreak itself is a far-fetched idea, and when comedy is added to the mix, the film needs razor-sharp wit, convincing performances, and strong CG to hook the viewer. Director duo Gaganjeet Singh and Alok Dwivedi set out to combine all these in IIZ. The idea of backbenchers taking charge flips the narrative and suggests that real-life skills are more crucial for survival than pedantic ones. The zombie toppers are shown agonising over a surprise quiz that has 2.5% weightage. The backbenchers also use attendance sheets, vivas, and other college staples to distract them — a comment on the rat race and how students are zombified into following it.An important message like this needed a better script and sharper satirical humour to make an impact. However, what the writers’ team — Kunj Sanghvi, Hussain Dalal, Abbas Dalal, Siddharth Kumar, and Husain Hardawala — delivers is a weak narrative stuffed with forced humour and random pop-culture references, such as “Kiris ka gaana sunega?”. The CG is shoddy, and the zombies’ make-up remains inconsistent. Only a few scenes elicit chuckles, while most tracks turn into inane sequences, such as creating a visual distraction with a street play and dance to the redux of Maar Daala. Some portions also stretch considerably.While there are too many characters to keep track of, the actors play their parts earnestly. Sachin Kavetham, Tanishq Chaudhary, and Shiva Brijrani fit the bill as the typical ne’er-do-well students. Ranjan Raj as the nerd and Subhash Ahirwar as his ‘pet’ zombie Brutus, Jesse Lever, Rose Sardana, and Bidisha Ghosh Sharma as zombie professor Mayalalitha lend able support. Anupriya Goenka and Mohan Kapur have the strongest roles and do justice to their characters.IIZ has a fun idea at its core but never quite finds the bite needed to make its zom-com chaos truly infectious.