Dance of the Dead (2008)

Okay, going into this film, I was worried that it was going to be a poor cheap imitation. A comedy yes, but a poor one. And by God, I was wrong, this film was great. It does a very good job at being a zombie story and at actually being funny.

We follow a group of students, some preparing for prom, some going out to film, when the power plant that is next door to the cemetery starts bringing the dead back to life. So, yeah, it has an environment message! Kind of a stupid message to portray, but at least the film doesn’t throw it in your face every five seconds, unlike most environmentally friendly films. It only mentions the plant, oh, about five times I think, the characters themselves focus more on surviving the effects, which is actually a really good route, it makes the film more realistic. Yes, I know it’s a film about zombies, but yes, focusing more on survival is more realistic.

All the characters are brilliant in their roles and are actually played by people who are in the necessary age range, instead of being played by 30 year olds. The characters are actually believable, they act like real students at the start, then react how you’d expect students to react in such a situation; scared and terrified, whilst at the same time adapting. Not only that, but the film succeeds in making you care about them. They’re enthusiastic, they’re charming, they’re just brilliant in their roles. The actors did a really good job in portraying them as well, even the minor characters did great jobs, especially the gravedigger.

It is really good as well that the film does not portray the geek characters in the stereotypical manner, you know, the spectacles, spots, braces, asthma and lisp voices. Real life geeks are NOT like that, if you believe it, so it’s good to see the film portray realistic characters.

I do have to give a nod to Justin Welborn, who portrays Kyle, as he made the character truly fantastic. He was really believable as the tough bully, then managed to make the audience sympathise with his character when he (SPOILERS!) dies. Not only that, but he actually brought most of the laughs during his screen time.

But the best character has to be Coach Keel, played by Mark Oliver. He converts the group of student survivors into hardened soldiers in no time at all, is actually competent, is one of, if not the, funniest character, and, on top of it all, drives my dream car, a hummer! He is just awesome! And his opening scene is priceless as he oversees Jimmy’s (played by Jared Kusnitz) detention. The montage of him arming the students with the garage full of weapons is also a great gem, especially when one of the lines consists of:

Coach Keel: “Little lady, you’ll get the machete,”

Gwen: “But I don’t know how to shoot a machete,”

His reaction was brilliant. Then there’s the scene where the students are talking to the band which had been distracting the zombies for five hours, whilst Coach in the background was killing zombies. Hell, he did a ‘Predator’ moment and ripped the SPINE AND SKULL from one zombie! Now that’s awesome!

The story is pretty good as well, the whole students versus zombies scenario was very well executed. It is dragged down a bit with some dodgy dialogue., and there was one scene where the zombies were literally jumping out of the graves to go after some of the characters in the graveyard. Whilst it was silly, you do have to remember that this is a comedy, and at the same time it was suppose to be an intense scene. The characters involved are running for their lives, and the spring boarding zombies add a lot more tension to that scene.

The zombies are a bit of a mixed result. They are good at bringing in a claustrophobic feel to the film, a nod to the old Romero films if you will, maybe the zombies being distracted by the music is a nod to the fireworks from ‘Land of the Dead’. And some scenes are done really well, such as in the morgue at the funeral home, where a zombie jumps out of the freezer still in the body bag. But half the time the zombies stagger, the other half they run, I’m pretty sure I heard some zombies mutter “brains”, some do Spiderman impressions and some are capable of DRIVING A CAR! Why?! Why are they able to drive a car?!

Then there’s that bizarre scene of two recently turned zombies making out because their former human selves had a bit of a romance going on. That was weird.

The ending also annoyed me. The sci-fi club having now got dates from female survivors at the prom, have since joined the other main characters and the Coach and are now planning to attack the power plant in order to stop the polluting chemicals (which are causing the dead to rise) from spreading. And then the film ends. Yeah, we don’t see them actually attack the power plant, it just ends, which makes me think it’s sequel baiting...even though there shouldn’t be any zombies there, and anyone who is there won’t put up much of a fight. But, yeah, disappointing ending. And I suppose after saying all that, there could’ve been more casualties from the group, which at the same time we don’t want because we do care a lot about the characters.

Final thoughts, this film is awesome! Yes it has flaws, but what film doesn’t? It’s creative, the acting is great, the music played by the musicians characters is great, the effects are good, it has a message which doesn’t ram itself down your throat, overall it’s a really entertaining piece of film making, especially for a low budget production. I definitely recommend this movie if you’re looking for a laugh.