I am, for the most part, kind of over zombie movies. As much as I enjoyed 28 Days Later and inhaled the early seasons of The Walking Dead, the genre is a bit played out at this point. (Even the highly acclaimed 28 Years Later has been gathering dust in my to-watch queue for months.) But Netflix's new Indonesian zombie flick, The Elixir, managed to subvert my expectations enough to be enjoyable.

For one thing, The Elixir has excellent pacing. It begins with a striking opening sequence in which a peaceful family party is disrupted by a van crashing into the guest seating area, after which a very undead-looking stranger stumbles out of the vehicle and attacks the partygoers. The scene is immediately followed by a flashback, and we get to observe the family hosting this party before tragedy struck in the form of a zombie delivery van.

Unlike a lot of zombie movies, The Elixir actually gives you enough time to get to know its main characters before people start trying to eat each other. There’s Nes, a wife and mother whose former best friend, Karina, is now married to Nes' father (awkward). This has understandably resulted in a falling out between Nes and Karina. Nes' brother, Bang, is kind but socially awkward, and enjoys playing video games with Nes' young son, Raihan. Nes' husband, Rudi, appears to have recently cheated on her. The patriarch of the family is........

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