Dance of the Dead

I had the opportunity last October to watch Dance of the Dead in the theater with my faithful horror movie watching companion and sister. I really like this movie. It's zany, silly, and hilarious, but it still has some flaws. It starts off like a typical teen movie: with teenager drama. The characters are a bit different than usual: there are the sci-fi geeks, Jimmy (the loser outcast), his creepily peppy girlfriend (Lindsey), the stoner rock band, the very angry redneck guy (Kyle Grubbin), and the militaristic football coach, among others. All these characters are so unique and funny in their own way. The teenager drama soon gives way to zombie violence and lots of it. The social outcasts and losers now become the saviors of their school. This follows in the vein of Shaun of the Dead. I loved seeing the teen drama playing out amidst the zombie violence and how much the teens cared about that maybe more than the zombie problem.

I liked seeing stars of other indie horror films I enjoyed working together in this film. Justin Welborn was in the great indie film The Signal, and he plays a very different character (the redneck troublemaker), but does it well. It's great to see that he can do comedy as well as serious films. Jared Kusnitz starred in Otis, another great horror comedy, and does a great job in this film too.

There are so many funny moments in this movie. I found myself laughing out loud a lot. Although I know it goes against typical zombie canon, I love that the rock music puts them into a kind of trance and tames the wild beast. The zombie prom scene is priceless, as well as the zombie makeout scene. There were some things that were plain lame, like the running zombies (which I have never agreed with), zombies that can crawl up the wall to the ceiling, and the headless zombie that chased the main characters. Other than those few things, this movie was great. I went out the very next day and purchased the film on DVD.