Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires

From the Screen to the Stage//Hugging during the Zombies 4/Descendants World Collide Tour, Malachi Barton and Freya Skye embrace each other after the successful tour. This started right after Zombies 4 came out, with teens and kids excited to go see the actors after loving the new movie. (Photo by Emelia Young)

Zombies are back. So are werewolves, aliens, and—a new addition—vampires. This July, Disney has successfully created the latest addition to the Zombies Franchise: Zombies 4 - Dawn of the Vampires. In one month, this movie captured the hearts of kids and teens everywhere, taking over Spotify playlists, TikTok home pages, and lock screens of loving Zombies fans and youth everywhere. What is it about this movie that has people obsessing with and memorizing every dance move and song lyric?

Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires was released July 10, 2025, and is the fourth movie in the successful Disney Zombies movie series. It was given a rating of 73% by rotten tomatoes and an overall 4.1 out of 5 by the audience. In the previous Zombies movies, each movie incorporated a different “monster” arriving in the town, starting with zombies, then werewolves, aliens, and now vampires. The movies were mostly centered around the two main characters, Zed and Allison, but the new movie included two new young main characters from the vampire world, Nova and Victor, and incorporated their point of view and stories.

The Zombies series has always been a great series with catchy songs and dances, and it has set the bar high for the rest of the Zombies movies in the musical/theatrical way. Zombies 4 definitely has held up to those standards. The two most popular songs coming out of the Zombies 4 movie are “Dream Come True,” and “Kerosene,” with “Dream Come True” coming at around 13.9 million listens on Spotify within the past month, and several fans and teens loving the new songs/playlist.

In the movie, the previous two main characters, Zed and Allison, go on a summer camping road trip with some friends and stumble upon a new world with two opposing sides of vampires and daywalkers. The vampires and daywalkers have a history together, and have a barrier to block each other from the other’s territories. In the movie, the vampires and daywalkers were on their way to an orchard to harvest their food for the year, and the two enemy groups started to fight over the orchard. When both groups reached the orchard's gate, the doors were locked and needed three keys to open them. As the groups stay in a camp nearby together to figure this out, a daywalker, Nova, and vampire, Victor, meet each other. The two form a bond and team up to try to bring the two groups together so that they can join forces and open the orchard’s gate.

The ending of Zombies 4 was great in incorporating several uplifting themes and messages to the audience. One is that you have to forgive each other, put aside your differences, and learn how to cooperate. It had a good conclusion which pictured everyone joining forces and solving the problem in the end. This created a satisfactory ending and brought the whole story together nicely.

Another thing that Zombies 4 did well was introducing the characters of Victor and Nova as a new love couple. This added a new twist and perspective to the film, which made the new movie more interesting by adding a younger and newer perspective. Many were fans of the new duo and the actors who played them (Malachi Barton and Freya Skye), which made the movie more popular with teens and kids.

“My favorite part of the movie was the duet between Malachi and Freya (Victor and Nova) where they sang ‘Dream Come True,’ it’s the new ‘Someday!’” junior, Emelia Young said.

Disney did a great job with Zombies 4, and appealed to their audience through the themes about working together and forgiving each other. They also did fantastic with creating fun and upbeat dances like in “Don’t Mess With Us” and “The Place to Be” when everyone starts dancing all together in a dance battle. Fans are already anticipating the fifth zombies movie, even predicting the new monster additions (rumors have said it to be mermaids), which is currently in the making. If Zombies 5 is worth it, we won’t know for a while, but Zombies 4 was a great movie and is definitely worth the hype. If you’re looking for a new Disney movie to obsess over, hear music from everywhere, and find a new celebrity crush, you should definitely watch Zombies 4 - Dawn of the Vampires.