The October Zombie-Thon 2009 - Day 21: My Dead Girlfriend
Posted by Trevor Snyder on 10.21.2009
There's nothing quite so romantic as a weekend of flesh-eating at a secluded cabin.
MY DEAD GIRLFRIEND (2006)
Directed by: Brett Kelly
Story by: Brett Kelly
Written by: John Muggleton
Country: Canada
On the DVD audio commentary for My Dead Girlfriend, director Brett Kelly explains that the inspiration for the film came after numerous people who had watched his more serious attempts at horror told him that he should try doing comedy. Now, I'm not sure if Kelly even noticed the apparent subtle insult contained within that suggestion, but I guess it really doesn't matter, because it turns out those people were right. Kelly's previous micro-budget horror efforts like Bonesetter or The Feral Man were sometimes mildly amusing (at best), but were also largely forgettable. My Dead Girlfriend, on the other hand, is one of the best independent zombie comedies I have ever seen. Now that those folks convinced Mr. Kelly to try comedy, I'm here asking him to stick to it.
Kelly stars as Steve, a goofy but likable college professor who is dating his former student, the occult-obsessed Amy (the film never really states if he started dating her while she was his student, so we'll ignore that possible ethical snafu). The two lovebirds are in the process of moving in together, but the smitten Steve wants to take things even further. And so, against the judgment of his best friend Carl (whose advice is rendered somewhat moot by the fact that at about 40 years old he still lives with his mom and is drunk at 11am ), Steve decides to propose to Amy.
Unfortunately, Steve's plan takes a pretty big hit when he accidentally backs over Amy with his car and kills her. Oops.
In real life, this would be the time when a freaked-out Steve would probably call the authorities, but we don't worry about such levelheaded protocol in an indie zombie movie called My Dead Girlfriend. So, instead, Steve brings Amy's body back to their apartment and tries to revive her using a spell from one of her books. It seems to work, although all is clearly not right with Amy. Her skin is a pale white, her bones loudly creak as she moves, and the only word she keeps repeating is "hungry." And although she was a vegetarian in life, something like a salad isn't exactly going to do it for her anymore.
Unsure of what to do, Steve tries to fill Amy up on hamburgers (which naturally does little to curb her "cravings"), and then takes her up to a buddy's cottage in the woods. As far as Steve knows, the cottage is currently empty, and they can just stay there until he figures out how to proceed. By now, though, it's becoming pretty clear that this is not Steve's week, so it's hardly surprising when Carl and his girlfriend, along with another couple, show up to the cabin for a weekend of partying. His friends are initially jazzed to see Steve and Amy, but it doesn't take them long to notice something is off with the girl, leaving a frazzled Steve to try and think up every excuse in the book to explain away her strange behavior.
With its six friends in a cabin setting, Steve's attempts at subterfuge, and a series of comical misunderstandings, My Dead Girlfriend kind of plays like a zombie sitcom. Except, unlike most modern sitcoms, this thing is actually pretty darn funny. The script by John Muggleton (who also plays Carl) is full of clever dialogue, most of it having to do with Steve's clever but transparently false explanations for little things like why he brought Amy to the cabin on a leash or why she projectile vomits after eating regular food (although my favorite bit actually has nothing to do with Amy's zombie condition, but is rather an earlier scene in which Steve and Carl try in vain to remember how the old "buying the milk when the cow is free" line goes). There's even a nice witty moment where the film openly mocks its own strange logic, as Steve is unable to explain why a bite from a black-magic-created zombie would be infectious.
As for the performances, they're all solid, if unspectacular. Kelly seems a little flat in the early lovey-dovey scenes, his deadpan comic delivery starts to shine through as things continue to get worse for Steve (although at times he might be a little too subdued for the total farce feeling the film is striving for). Muggleton is quite amusing as Carl, who resignedly accepts any far-out explanation Steve offers, simply because he is too interested in drinking and getting high to care about much else. But the real treat is Caitlin Delaney as Amy, who overcomes her weak, generic make-up (white skin with black around the eyes) with an adorably cute zombie act, keeping the character sympathetic even as she begins feasting on her friends.
The film has its flaws, most of which can be chalked up to the usual sort of problems you get in such tiny-budget efforts. For instance, in the scene where Steve runs over Amy, the camera angle of Steve walking up to his car clearly shows that there's no reason he shouldn't have seen her behind the vehicle. Also, the films first act – before Amy's resurrection – feels awfully padded. Check out the pointless time-lapse shot of the city skyline or, even worse, the totally unnecessary "packing boxes to move!" montage.
Still, these are fairly minor complaints for a movie that otherwise accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do. It's rare to find those independent zombie movies that score most of their laughs intentionally, rather than from general ineptitude. For that reason alone, My Dead Girlfriend is something to be celebrated – a genuinely witty zombie comedy that proves that truly funny scripts and smaller budgets need not be mutually exclusive ideas.
