Ziam Review: Thai Action-Horror Movie Has An Interesting Concept In A Cliched Story
Copyright © Netflix, Kantana Motion Pictures
Title: Ziam
Alternative Titles: ปากกัด ตีนถีบ (original Thai)
Director: Kulp Kaljareuk
Release Date: July 9, 2025
Good streaming performance will not always mean a good movie. We haven't done any Thai movies in a while, so this movie was a great opportunity to go back to those. Hunger was good. Once Upon a Star was good. Is this as good as the others mentioned? Today's movie is Ziam, the Thai action-horror movie released by Netflix. During its release time, the movie gained the number one spot in the top 10 for a while. However, it gained mixed-to-meddling reviews from critics and audiences, who praised the action and visuals but criticized the story and characters. Even if this movie has a somewhat interesting concept, Ziam is a rotten fish that should be worth throwing away.
Summary
"In a fight for survival against a horrifying army of zombies, a former Muay Thai fighter must use skill, speed and grit to save his girlfriend." - Google
Reasons
The fishy viruses of Ziam are the clichéd story, underdeveloped characters, and stupid logic. I know, it has a pretty interesting concept of how the virus would spread around the town, but it was used for an extremely predictable narrative. This movie is basically the "father saves a child who cares for their mother" plot all over again, like with Train to Busan. Additionally, it wastes good themes, such as climate change, class division, and government corruption, for a generic zombie adventure! Besides the formulaic story, the characters are underdeveloped. Instead of getting real development, they only exist as basic archetypes from other zombie movies we have seen before. Even worse, the protagonist, Singh, is overpowered without context behind how he can defeat the enemies! Speaking of no context, the logic is stupid. The fish-borne virus is an interesting idea, but the transformation is so nonsensical because there is no way you will look like a fish when you are dead. As for Singh, his survival techniques do not make much sense, which shows how he is so overpowered in any situation.
Next, the fishy tastes of Ziam are the visuals, genre execution, and scares. Excluding the action, the movie does have some effort put into the setups. The design and makeup of the zombies were well-made, and the gore effects were decent. However, the cinematography had inconsistent movements, which were put in a boring dystopian environment. Besides visuals, the genre execution was both talented and imbalanced. It can combine both horror and action into one whole movie. Unfortunately, the action part tipped the scale. Following the genre execution, the scares are pretty average. All of them were paced pretty well, which would keep audiences on the edge. At the same time though, their timing is so predictable because of the very formulaic story.
Well, Ziam is not a good movie, but the benefits, at the least, are the interesting concept, fun action, and easy pacing. The story is so predictable, but the idea of a zombie outbreak in a hotel is great. Moreover, the idea of a fish-borne (or generally, seafood) outbreak is a clever thing, and that would not have been wasted if the story were to actually be good. Putting the concepts aside, the action is fun, too. What makes the action so much fun is that it uses articulate Muay Thai choreography. Finally, the pacing is decent. The 1 hour and 36 minutes does pace a simple story into an easy watch.
Conclusion
Although not one of the worst, Ziam is a boring movie that has rotten viruses from a fish. This movie wasted two good ideas on a boring and half-baked zombie movie! It's not as bad as the other horror movies that are not good, though. If you have Netflix, just give this a skip if you can, unless you need something to help you fall asleep. Go check out the 28 Days Later series and also Train to Busan instead if you are into zombies.
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