Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 4: Dawn of the Vampires, on Disney Channel
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Caution: spoilers.

This is the fourth movie in the ZOMBIES franchise. It premiered in 2025, during my Summer of DCOMs, so I watched it within a few days of its release. (Which I probably would have done anyway.)

Addison, Zed, Eliza, and Willa have been attending Mountain College, and are just finishing up their first year. Addison is supposed to go to a cheerleading camp for the summer, and Zed is supposed to go to a football camp. They've both missed each other so much that it seemed to me like they must have been attending different colleges, but I guess they were both just focused on cheerleading and football, respectively. The four friends take a road trip together to get to the different places they're going for the summer, when a weird energy pulse causes Zed's Z-band to malfunction, and he crashes his car. The four of them then go their separate ways to look for help. Zed finds a group called the Daywalkers (who I think of as firebenders), while Addison finds a group of vampires (who I think of as airbenders). The two groups have lived in separate cities for generations, as they all hate each other. But the one thing they have in common is that they eat something called blood fruit, and both of their orchards have recently been dying out. So both groups are going to an orchard that lies between their two lands, which has been sealed off by a magical barrier, and the only way through is a locked triple gate.

When the groups come to the same spot at the same time, Zed and Addison try to get them to work together. Also helping with this are Eliza and Willa, who have just shown up. The elder vampire leaves a teenager named Victor in charge of the teen vampires, while the Daywalker elder leaves his daughter, Nova, in charge of the teen Daywalkers, while all the older vampires and Daywalkers go home or something. The teens find an abandoned camp called Camp Rayburn, where they spend the night. The next day, they all have to start searching for three keys to unlock the gate. Meanwhile, Victor and Nova have apparently had visions of each other for a long time, so they're surprised but cautiously happy to have finally met in real life. They also want their respective groups to work together, but it's difficult to get their people to agree to that. Especially because of a vampire named Vera and a Daywalker named Ray, who are both particularly opposed to the groups working together. But eventually the vampires and Daywalkers do agree to work together, and share the blood fruit. Unfortunately, when the older vampires and Daywalkers return, they get in a fight that destroys most of the orchard.

While all this is going on, Eliza has been researching the source of the pulse that had affected Zed's Z-band. The pulses have been continuing, and getting worse, affecting not just Zed, but his three friends as well. If the pulses continue, it could result in Zed and Eliza reverting to full zombie mode permanently. It also seems the pulses could eventually reach Seabrook, putting everyone there in danger. When they find the source of the pulses, it turns out a kind of tower has been damaging the roots of all the blood fruit, so they must try to stop that as well as the pulses that the tower has been emitting. Victor and Nova will have to help with that.

Well, I don't want to spoil any more details. I feel like I've said to much already. But of course there is ultimately a happy ending for everyone. And Zed, Addison, Eliza, and Willa decide to all spend their summer together in Seabrook. Victor and Nova promise to see each other again. And then... something happens that looks to be a sequel hook, but I won't spoil what that is. Anyway, I found the story reasonably enjoyable, and the songs were okay. I do question the choice to title the movie "Dawn of the Vampires", when vampires were just one of two equally important groups. But maybe "Dawn" could refer to Daywalkers, I dunno. And I guess that's all I can think to say.