Alternate Takes 10.03.09: Zom-Coms

Posted by Shawn S. Lealos on 10.03.2009

With the recent release of Zombieland, 411's Shawn S. Lealos looks at five other "zom-coms" that border on greatness, from Shaun of the Dead to Dance of the Dead, in this week's Alternate Takes!



Welcome to Week 71 of Alternate Takes. I am your host Shawn S. Lealos and you have now entered my world.

Movie releases for the Week of October 02, 2009 - October 08, 2009

What a slate of movies we have this weekend!

ZOMBIELAND - Zombieland is the best horror comedy since Shaun of the Dead. Jesse Eisenberg, a talented young actor who usually struggles to rise above pathetic and strange, is sincerely funny in this movie and is offset by a wonderful performance by Woody Harrelson, all machismo and bravado. They are two of the last people left alive on Earth after a zombie outbreak and the movie becomes one of the most creative, funny horror comedies in years. The script is smart, the gore is over-the-top and the direction is inventive. This is the most fun I have had at the cinema this year outside of Inglourious Basterds and ranks near the top of my Best Movies of 2009 list.

A SERIOUS MAN - It is time for the yearly greatness that is a Coen brothers' movie. This one takes the brothers back to their comfort zone of independent and quirky filmmaking. In what looks like a throw back to their earlier work (Barton Fink in particular), A Serious Man tells the story of a man on the verge of losing his wife, his job and the respect of his children at the same time. With a no-name cast, A Serious Man looks like a love letter to the Coen faithful and is a movie I cannot wait to see.

THE INVENTION OF LYING - Ricky Gervais' latest comedy looks very funny. He plays a man who discovers lying in a world where everyone can only tell the truth. The trailers make this look very entertaining and he is surrounded by a great supporting cast including Jennifer Garner and Rob Lowe. This is a big week for fans of comedy.

WHIP IT - On the opposite end of the spectrum is Whip It, a contrived, unoriginal coming-of-age story. The movie offers a treat for fans of roller derby or "girls club" films but really lacks in the direction and story. Ellen Page is a seventeen year old girl rebelling against the wishes of her mother by running away from home and joining the roller derby league. Along the way, she turns her back on her best friend and loses her virginity to an Indie rocker. Did I mention she is seventeen? I did not like this movie although there are small things to like (Kristen Wiig, Daniel Stern, Andrew Wilson).

CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY - Finally, we get the latest documentary from Michael Moore as he sets his sights on corporate America. This is rumored to be his last documentary for awhile as he plans to try his hand at fiction feature filmmaking. If this is the last chance to see a Michael Moore documentary I will be in line because, agree with him or not, they are always entertaining.

THIS WEEK'S RELEASES:

With the very awesome Zombieland (see REVIEW here) hitting theaters this week, I am pretty excited to talk about one of my favorite subgenres, the zom-com.

5. DANCE OF THE DEAD Directed by Gregg Bishop Written by Joe Ballarini Cast: Jared Kusnitz, Greyson Chadwick, Chandler Darby, Carissa Capobianco, Randy McDowell, Michael V. Mammoliti, Mark Lynch, Justin Welborn, Mark Oliver, Blair Redford, Lucas Till Before I get into this, I should warn you there are two Dance of the Dead movies out there. One is from the Masters of Horror series and is directed by Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw). This, however, is the other one. The movie begins with a gravedigger at the local cemetery going about his job. He hears a moan and when he finally pinpoints its location, ear to the ground, an arm shoots out of the ground and begins to strangle him. The gravedigger takes some hedge clippers and lops the hand off the arm. The hand continues to try to attack and he scoops it up and tosses it in a wheel barrel with other moving body parts. The camera pans up and we see a nuclear power plant in the background, spewing pollution. This movie is best compared to Return of the Living Dead. There is a motley crew of characters that must band together and battle against hoards of the undead. The night that all hell breaks loose is the same night as the high school prom. The only people left to save the day are the ones not cool enough to attend the dance. There is a metal band that was rejected from playing the event. A pizza boy and his girlfriend distracted from making it there in a timely manner on the outside looking in. There is a cheerleader whose date fell through, a ruffian who looks a little too old to still be in school, a confederate loving redneck gym teacher and the school's sci-fi society. What makes the movie so much fun is the liberties taken with the zombie genre. In much the same manner as Return of the Living Dead, these are fast moving zombies. Not only are they fast, but they can climb, open doors, use weapons, and drive cars. It is not only humans that can be infected as a frog attacks the high school science teacher. The choreography is ridiculous. In one scene the kids are running through the cemetery and zombies chase on foot. Suddenly reanimated zombies burst from the ground, into the air and break into an immediate run, joining in the chase. It is so over-the-top and ludicrous that you can only sit there and smile in amazement. The kills are inventive, using everything from a gun, to a machete, to a baseball bat covered with nails to C4. When I finished watching this movie I could only shake my head in amazement that someone was allowed to make this. It is a newer entry but it is worth all the praise it can get.

4. DEAD ALIVE Directed by Peter Jackson Written by Peter Jackson, Stephen Sinclair and Frances Walsh Cast: Timothy Balme, Diana Peñalver, Elizabeth Moody, Ian Watkin, Brenda Kendall, Stuart Devenie, Jed Brophy Dead Alive, also known as Braindead, is Peter Jackson's follow-up Zombie movie to his breakout Bad Taste. In terms of quality alone, it is miles above his previous effort and takes its place rightly alongside other eighties era video nasties (The Evil Dead, Street Trash). It glorifies itself on the subgenre "Splatstick" proudly. The hero of the film is Lionel (Timothy Balme), a wuss who lets his mother keep him on the shortest of leashes. When Lionel goes on a date, his mom follows them to the zoo where she is bit by a vicious rat monkey, infected with a disease that turns anyone infected into a zombie. Lionel tries to keep a lid on things by locking his mother away but things escalate when she infects someone else, who in turn infects someone else, all the while Lionel keeps them locked away in the basement. When the numbers grow out of control, they break out and wreck havoc on the small town. The movie is known for some ridiculous, over-the-top ideas including an avenging priest ("kick ass for The Lord!") and a zombie baby in a jumper suit. There is excessive gore with zombies being killed with meat cleavers and kitchen appliances and there is no shortage of entrails oozing on the floor. The best kill has to be the lawnmower scene, as it plows over a zombie, chopping him to pieces, all shown from the lawnmowers point of view. To put it bluntly, it is awesome.

3. FIDO Directed by Andrew Currie Written by Andrew Currie, Robert Chomiak and Dennis Heaton Cast: Carrie-Anne Moss, Billy Connolly, Dylan Baker, K'Sun Ray, Sonja Bennett, Jennifer Clement, Rob LaBelle, Aaron Brown, Brandon Olds, Alexia Fast, Henry Czerny, Tim Blake Nelson, David Kaye Fido is one of the most unique, strangely endearing zombie movies ever made. The movie is an off take of Leave it to Beaver era idealism, picket fences, apple pies and zombies. It starts off with black and white stock footage of how the zombie outbreak began and what was done to control the situation. Fido is a post-apocalyptic film in which everything is returned back to normal, the status quo, after the zombies have been defeated. There was a war, the humans won thanks to a major corporation which now controls everything, and the zombies have been pretty much rendered harmless. They are now used as servants, pets and love slaves. This is accomplished with control collars that are placed around the zombie's necks which make them docile and controllable. Our hero is Timmy, a young boy, and his zombie is a pet named Fido. His mother (Carrie-Anne Moss) finds the pet to be worthwhile but Timmy's dad (Dylan Baker) has an unhealthy fear of the zombies thanks to an unfortunate incident with his dad. Fido's collar malfunctions one day and he eats an old lady in the park. The body is hidden but it doesn't matter because the dead return and the town finds itself in fear of a possible outbreak. Timmy also finds his pet taken into custody. The evil in this film, as with many in the monster genres, is not the monster but the humans who are corrupted along the way. In this case, it is the corporation that helped save society but now controls them with an iron fist. The movie is full of great performances, none better than Billy Connelly as Fido. With no dialogue and only facial expressions to show emotion, he knocks it out of the park. The film pays homage to a number of various films from Day of the Dead (Fido is what Bub could have become), Lassie (Fido saves Timmy!!!), as well as the more obvious Pleasantville and Leave it to Beaver. It might be one of the lesser known zom-coms but it brings so much greatness to the table, it is well worth you seeking it out.

2. RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD Directed by Dan O'Bannon Written by Dan O'Bannon Cast: Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa, Thom Mathews, Beverly Randolph, John Philbin, Jewel Shepard, Miguel Nunez, Brian Peck, Linnea Quigley, Mark Venturini, Jonathan Terry Out of all the movies on this list, Return of the Living Dead is the most iconic. I find it interesting that many changes occurring in the zombie genre over the last decade, many of which were criticized by fans, were utilized in this 1985 zom-com. The zombies in this movie ran almost twenty years before Zack Snyder had his run in the Dawn of the Dead remake. The zombies in this movie spoke, including the famous line "send more paramedics," as well as the iconic cries for "Brains!" One zombie even explains why they eat brains (It lessens their pain) There are a number of things in this movie that made me scratch my head but it is as original a zombie tale as you can get. At the offset, the movie wears its genre history on its sleeves. The movie starts with a pair of warehouse workers discussing the classic Romero film Night of the Living Dead. One of the men exclaims the story was true and covered up by the government. He then shows the other man a body of one of the zombies, kept in a barrel. He bumps the barrel, gas leaks out and the dead return to life. The homage is easy to understand when you realize this movie was originally written as a sequel to the Romero zombie classic. John Russo was the co-writer of that horror film and both he and Romero worked independently on their own versions of a sequel. Writer Dan O'Bannon was brought onto the project and when director Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw) left the project, he was given the chance to direct the movie. He took the sequel, written by Russo, and reworked it into more of a comedy. It was released at the same time as the dark, nihilistic Day of the Dead and could not be any more different. The film was shot on a low budget but it works for the most part. The "Tarman" was brilliantly executed and, while some of the effects are a bit cheesy (the skeleton rising from the grave), others are brilliant. It has a large amount of gore, social commentary (the alienation of American youth), and an explosive finale. It is just as nihilistic as Romero's Day of the Dead, but is shot in such a tongue in cheek method, you can't help but smile as everyone is slaughtered and no hope is given. This movie gives nowhere near the level of commentary that Romero dished out, but as a fun, crazy, wild ride, it is the best you can hope for.

1. SHAUN OF THE DEAD Directed by Edgar Wright Written by Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg Cast: Simon Pegg, Kate Ashfield, Nick Frost, Lucy Davis, Dylan Moran, Nicola Cunningham, Peter Serafinowicz, Bill Nighy My number one should come as no surprise. Edgar Wright is a God among Directors. Both of his films are masterpieces of cinema when it comes to deconstructing the genres he approaches. I am sure I will talk about Hot Fuzz later but this is the time to talk about the best zom-com of all time, Shaun of the Dead. From the minds of Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, the men behind British television sensation Spaced, Shaun of the Dead compares being a zombie in the undead sense to being a walking zombie in everyday life. The movie starts off with Shaun, a hapless shop worker, trudging through his daily life (women problems, mom problems, work problems, roommate problems). From there we see him as he wanders through the day, never once realizing that the world is going to hell around him. The people who sleepily wandered the streets at the star of the movie now lumber down them, zombiefied. It is a great implication of the dead end lives so many people today lead. It is as close to "Romero social commentary" as you can get. Shaun and his best friend Ed save Shaun's girlfriend and mom, while fighting off the zombies, eventually finding themselves trapped in a pub, surrounded by the undead with no way out. The movie is not skimpy on the gore. There is a scene where one character has his entrails torn out straight from Dawn of the Dead. There are a number of homages to Romero's classics as well. When Shaun calls his mother Barb and tells her they are coming to save her, Ed shouts "We're coming to get you Barbara." The story is also as hopeless as any straight zombie movie, with unexpected deaths and the heroes relying on a deus-ex-machina to save the day at the end. The movie is a spoof, it is a comedy, but at the same time Wright takes the genre seriously. Wright and Simon Pegg were so worried their hero Romero would be disappointed, they called the veteran horror icon and were thrilled to hear Romero liked their film. Romero was not just giving faint praise either as he allowed them cameo roles in Land of the Dead. It is no surprise Romero liked it because Wright made sure his zombies were realistic and horrific, never making fun of the undead, but allowing the humor to take place in the situation itself. The zombies were without motive or moral rage. They simply lumbered around, ready to kill anyone and everyone they came in contact with, no reservations. You could easily avoid them but eventually a character had to rest and then the zombie kills them. It is horror, mixed with comedy, and is the best of its kind.

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