A mother who loves her son...so touching.. she is willing to raise him from the dead. The tag line for the movie "This zombie loves his girlfriend for her brains"....I was unaware that zombies even had girlfriends. Oh wait, wasn't there a movie from 1993 called My Boyfriend's Back.....hmm, new idea anyone? I have to say that this movie does differ slightly from it's predecessor of the 90's. I did, sadly enough, find myself watching the previous mentioned movie of my childhood. I now remember why I had not watched it since, that being said though, there are a profound amount of similarities along with a few subtle differences.
We start this film in a Catholic church in Ireland...old churches, such as the one in this film, are uber creepy by themselves... not to mention the priests who run them add to the creepiness. Not even five minutes into this film, I am already sensing a Romeo and Juliet esque plot... the boy who likes the pretty girl who just happend to be a good friend but her father despises him. This sounds a bit familiar... Oh, right the plot of the mass of teen related films on the market-My bad! So why not a zombie film. Thus far I am not disliking it... just wondering about the voo-doo factor considering this is Ireland-though the priest does explain that the voo-doo ceremonies come from a pagan book. All right then, we shall just go with that.
As I continue to view this film, I am already making the predictions of who will go first. Per my usual instinct, which are usually correct, the Jock who dislikes the main character Nathan and his lacky will most likely be the first to go. Then there is the father of the heroine, who in my opinion is a major Douche Bag. Not only is he the kind of dad who's only standards for a possible suitor is that he must have money and a really nice car, but he likes to hit on girls the same age as his daughter... blech! I think I just vomited in my mouth some. Nathan discovers his love interest in the car of some sleazy guy and assumes she is one of those girls... which leads him to drinking. His emo antics of my heart is now crushed so I am going to attempt suicide goes off with out a hitch thanks to some accidental assistance from his poor mother. This leads to a few flashes of blood, a pagan book of voo-doo ceremonies, than a perfectly fine Nathan... who is no worse for wear other than his craving for human flesh.
As this film progresses you discover one of the things that sucks about being a voo-doo zombie who is in his adolescent prime... the girls may think you like boys as much as they do. Remember no more blood flow... talk about being the nightmare for guys. Anyway I digress, comes to find out that one bite from Nathan the voo-doo zombie his victims-like the aforementioned Jock- you don't get to be a lucid zombie but the typical shambling flesh eater... so anyone in the vicinity is free game. One zombie leads to a horde of zombies, thus the "apocalypse" begins. Nice touch by the way, when the teacher tells the Jock zombie to 'spit it out' and he actually does spit a finger at him. The gore of this film is rather well done... not too much but just enough to make even a horror nut like me happy.
The zombie spread seems to be your typical phase one outbreak... though it doesn't seem to spread as fast as I would assume since it began amongst the teenage crowd. I am a bit disappointed in the lack of rampant zombies, though they did give a good try at it. I did however find a few scenes that made me giddy... there are some very well thought out moments by the director where a few zombies turn up on unsuspecting victims. Unlike it's predecessor My Boyfriends Back this film doesn't come across as spoofy, it does have it's campy moments, which are as fleeting as an old woman on a moped. I do have to say that the zombies seem to take a lot of force to be brought down... which isn't very typical of these type of films, which is in its own way a bit refreshing.
Now as I commonly do, I raise an eyebrow to the fact that the zombies can be turned back... which I have to remind myself is the way with voo-doo zombies. My first thought when this concept arises in these type of films usually relates to the sauntering few who have missing limbs, mortal wounds or even entrails hanging... which is why I find myself questioning this line of thinking. I guess if you do have to fortune of being turned back it just sucks to be you. My favorite line thus far once the "cure" is discovered, comes when Nathan's two best friends and the popular easy girl are in a closet hiding out... "We should stay in here until dawn. Doesn't that kill them?" "No, that's vampires." "What!? There are vampires, too?" This made me chuckle a bit.
The other scene that delighted me, is one with a tractor with side tillers or something of that sort... oh the zombie massacre that ensues feels me with glee. It is a bit over the top but I am one who appreciates the the organs and body parts spread across the lawn... I love these simple and subtle touches. Then it's here we go... lets set zombies on fire! Always a bad idea, but this only pans out because the numbers have dwindled down. Otherwise, any other time flaming zombies are bad... one flaming zombie leads to an angry horde of flaming zombies. I have to say for a zombie film this was pretty okay... the zombies portrayed show an genre not usually as popular. I would recommend this film to anyone who wants to watch a romantic, funny, gore filled film. Though there are times it borders closely to being a zombie porn film... course the title would work for that as well. Surprised Ron Jeremy hasn't already thought of that.
Horror films are one of my many passions... previously I had been reviewing Zombie films. It was brought to my attention that I should just do horror in general. Valid point, after so many of my friends made this suggestion I finally listened.
