Santa Clarita Diet: The kind of zom-com you can feast on

NETFLIX’S new zombie-comedy gives bingeing a whole new meaning. Just maybe don’t feast on it during dinner.

REVIEW

MOST partners have experienced a lull in their relationship after years and years together. You can get stuck in a rut — you talk about celebrity haircuts and whether the dial on the new toaster is faulty.

Many relationships could do with a bit of spicing up, a bit of change to kick things into gear. But there’s change and then there is CHANGE.

Sheila (Drew Barrymore) and Joel Hammond (Timothy Olyphant) are suburban real estate agents in sunny Santa Clarita, a whitebread city north of Los Angeles. They have a teenage daughter and nosy neighbours in their cul-de-sac of near identical mini McMansions.

One day, during an open house with clients, Sheila vomits in the middle of the plush-carpeted master bedroom. This isn’t your regular ‘Oops, I had too much to drink’ vomit, we’re talking full-on Exorcist projectile bile. She excuses herself into the bathroom and when Joel goes to check on her a few minutes later, it’s carnage.

The room is covered in a science-defying spray of vomit while Sheila is slumped on the ground, pulseless, seemingly dead. As Joel cradles her in his arms, she springs back to life but with one complication — Sheila is now a zombie.

That’s what all storage containers end up being used for, right?

Yes, Netflix has made a zombie-comedy or, as I’ve heard it called, a zom-com.

Created by Victor Fresco (Better Off Ted), Santa Clarita Diet doesn’t really have an obvious antecedent, certainly not on TV. It’s a much tamer execution than something like the irreverent Zombieland or raucously funny Shaun of the Dead, nor does it have the biting satire of something like Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Delicatessen.

But that doesn’t mean it’s without teeth, oh yes, those chompers get a workout.

It goes to a darker place than you’d expect, belying its cheery aesthetic and tone. The first time Sheila bites down on a live victim, it flows crimson and is shockingly nausea-inducing. The juxtaposition of that Southern California sunshine with death and kind-of-cannibalism, for the most part, works.

And you’ll also learn the going rate for a dead foot is $400 — bargain!

Barrymore, America’s sweetheart, is surprisingly comfortable as a zombie, shifting easily between suburban mum and bloodthirsty undead. Olyphant, better known for dramatic roles, is more inconsistent — while he has good comedic timing, he has a tendency to go 10 per cent overboard in the ham department.

As Sheila and Joel contend with their challenging new reality their relationship is the strongest it’s been in years — trying to manage homicidal bloodlust will do that for you. Barrymore and Olyphant have an easy chemistry and chart this unusual marital journey well.

While Santa Clarita Diet isn’t likely to achieve the cult status bestowed upon so many zom-coms before it, it’s wonderfully weird enough to be very binge-able. Go ahead, feast.

Santa Clarita Diet is available to stream on Netflix on Friday February 3 from 7pm AEDT.

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Someone’s caught up on Dexter.