Prom Night for the Walking Dead

High school prom, high school love, high school drama, nerds, jocks, cool kids, teens who are running for their lives (but still bite off their curse words), Zombies who can drive and who are soothed by rock and roll. This is Dance of the Dead, a 2008 film directed by Gregg Bishop.

Dance of the Dead is fairly light fare as far as zombie films go. The story is about a small town with a graveyard next to a power plant. One night the plant lets loose a gas that makes the dead rise and attack. Coincidentally, the release of the compound happens the same night as the high school prom. We pick up the action—and all the accompanying teen drama—the day of the prom, and in no time the dead are up and we are running with a group of nerds and cool kids as they battle the zombies and plan a rescue of the prom.

The film is done in a tongue-in-cheek fashion and is in the same vein as Return of the Living Dead. There are a few genuinely scary scenes, a few genuinely funny scenes, and some decent one-liners. Most of the frights come from the use of under-cranked action, quick editing and sudden scares. The zombies move inconsistently, some run fast, some run slow, but all are “tamed” by music. The scenes of zombies reacting to a garage band and swaying under a mirror ball to a ballad are fairly funny—as is the scene of a young zombie couple making out in a bathroom stall.

The film is ultimately an upbeat proposition, but there's good splatter, good hack-ups, and some fire scenes. It's fun, harmless, and the actors are cute and white. It won't keep the preteens awake at night, and it's a quick viewing. It doesn't make my top 20 list, and there isn't any kitschiness, or something that could redeem it in the eyes of a die-hard hardcore zombie fan, but it's not painful either. Dance of the Dead is not an awful film, but I'm glad bought the DVD from the bargain bin.

Let Sleeping Corpses Lie

Let Sleeping Corpses Lie is a mid-seventies European horror film set in England. The film is a Spanish/Italian production that is directed by the Spaniard, Jorge Grau, and inspired by the seminal zombie film, The Night of the Living Dead (NLD). Let Sleeping Corpses Lie is a bit groovy, with its David Hemmings-like, long-haired, British protagonist, yet it's also very much a film of its time. It has an environmental theme, a heroin-addicted character, generation gap issues, and conspiratorial/paranoid underpinnings. Corpses takes a while to get going as the film spends some time slogging through the build-up minutiae, but once it has its feet, the film takes off and provides some excellent scenes of out-of-control zombies and furious cannibalistic gang feeding.

The story concerns a young couple, George and Edna, who meet at a gas station when she accidentally backs her MIni Cooper over his Norton motorcycle. Somewhat perturbed, George insists that Edna give him a ride. Even thought their destinations are in different directions, Edna agrees. George is trying to get to a meeting outside of London, and Edna is trying to get to the countryside to see her sister. They decide to visit Edna's sister first. When they arrive they discover that a nearby group of agricultural workers are using an experimental device to control pests. The device uses ultrasonic emissions to cause the pests to attack and kill one another.

Of course, it isn't long before the device begins to affect humans. Soon after the machine is turned on a newborn attacks a nurse, and a recently deceased tramp rises from the dead and begins attacking people. The reason why the device doesn't affect other humans is explained as having something to do with how the base low-level neurological functions of humans (specifically, the very young and the recently deceased) are similar to that of insects (yeah...). It's one of a couple of the head-scratchers that show up in Corpses.

The film meanders a bit as it gets going. Edna is attacked by the zombie tramp, but no one believes her. We learn that Edna's sister, Katie, is a heroin addict, and that she is being forcibly sequestered their country home by her husband, Martin, who is trying to clean her up. Naturally this necessitates a shoot-up scene, which in turn necessitates a zombie interruption of this most private of moments. Martin is killed by the zombie tramp at the home. This brings in the police and a nasty local police sergeant with a strong dislike of long-haired youths in “faggot clothes”. He discovers the heroin and feels justified in suspecting and eventually pegging George as a devil-worshiping thrill killer. Meanwhile, the zombie tramp begins creating other zombies by taking his blood and putting it on the eyelids of corpses in a morgue (head-scratcher number two).

Things unravel for George as events quickly conspire against him. He can't seem to convince anyone that the zombies exist and that the agriculture device is responsible. His inabilities seem to have more to do with an establishment that refuses to take its youth seriously (not that it could have anything to do with George's horrible communication skills). Little by little he ends up looking more and more desperate and crazy. In one scene, he attacks and breaks the agricultural device scaring off the workers who jump into a van to flee the maniacal youth.  In an humorous moment, he then tries to hitch a ride back into town with the fleeing workers who want no part of him. George is incredulous and can't seem to understand why they won't oblige him. George spends the rest of his time rushing around burning up things and fighting zombies on his own. The end result of his efforts is that he kills a bunch of zombies, but he also looks more guilty in the eyes of the police sergeant. The film eventually winds down to George fighting the zombies AND fleeing from the police sergeant.

The level of gore in Let Sleeping Corpses Lie is high, with the best scene occurring when three zombies attack an unsuspecting hospital receptionist. The zombies are slow moving and mindless cannibals, but they are incredibly strong. In one scene they rip grave headstones out of the ground and throw them. Despite some occasional silliness, Corpses is a serious film with a lot of really good zombie action. The environmental/pollution angle that presides over the opening sequence gets a little muddied and unimportant, and the whole generation gap and conspiracy/paranoia angles end up driving the plot. Which is good, because it makes the story a lot more interesting. Arthur Kennedy does an excellent job as the police sergeant. His irascibility is just as frightening as any of the walking dead.

Let Sleeping Corpses Lie is good thriller with lots of zombie action and some unintentional funniness. It's worth the viewing and worth adding to your collection.

Stylized Horror - Messiah of Evil

Here's a curiously different kind of zombie movie. Messiah of Evil is an American-made early-seventies film with art-house styling, pacing, and pretentiousness. It's more of a horror film than it is a zombie film. Sure zombies figure as a main threat, but the film is more like the horror films of old, because it relies more on mood as its main fright-inducing mechanism. Messiah of Evil could be hard to take for some—and not because of the subject matter (implied pseudo devil-worshiping and cannibalism) or the gore, which is minimal-to-none (most of the killing occurs off screen). It's the film's arty pretentiousness, the plodding pace, and the unwieldy story that could have some viewers squirming in their seats. Fans of European films of the seventies will find Messiah to be an easy fit, but the modern horror film viewer will most likely need more patience. Still, Messiah of Evil is a good film and required viewing for serious fans of the genre.

The story follows a woman, Arletty, who travels to a small coastal town to find her father, Charles. Charles has been sending Arletty disturbingly distraught letters in which he confesses that something terrible is happening to him, something out of his control, a transformation. He warns her to stay away. 

She arrives to find her father's house uninhabited but discovers his diaries. In them Charles details the transformation that he is going through. Concerned she decides to stay. The next morning she goes to search for him in town. This leads her to a mysterious European man, Tom, and his two sexy female traveling companions. Tom is an enthusiast/researcher of legends and tales. He is conducting private research on the town to uncover the details of an event called, the Blood Moon. Upon our introduction to Tom, we find him interviewing the town drunk (played by Elijah Cook Jr.), who describes a story of a strange happening in the town's past. Later, we learn of the legend of a mysterious black-clad stranger from the past whose return is imminent and coincides with the appearance of the Blood Moon. This stranger's impending arrival and the nearing of the Blood Moon has a powerful influence on the townspeople, who go through the slow systematic transformation of becoming zombies. The symptoms are the same ones Charlie writes about in his diaries. As the Blood Moon nears, Arletty finds herself going through the same transformation. Chaos ensues as the zombie townspeople close in on Tom and Arletty and await the arrival of the dark stranger.

Messiah of Evil is a horror flick in the vein of the Val Lewton and Hammer productions with a heavy pretense toward the European art films of the sixties and seventies. The filmmakers admit to being inspired more by the work of the great Italian director, Michaelangelo Antonioni than by George Romero (see DVD special features interview of release ##). Antonioni was known for his ponderously long stylized takes and his careful selection and use of backgrounds that were as much a part of his films as the actors. He used this technique to expose the feelings and psychological states of his characters.

The filmmakers were obviously students of the great master's work, because they rely heavily on this technique to immediately bring Messiah to a long moody simmer. Combine this with the striking cinematography, which makes heavy use of the graphic components of the sets, and Messiah becomes a visual tone piece. Of course, all this heaviness slows the pace down, but it also gives the film a uniquely stylized look. However, instead of taking advantage of this somber mood and pace to frighten us with shock and sudden scares, the filmmakers choose to maintain it and frighten us with awkwardly strange scenes and sequences that build slowly to an eerie climax. It's very effective, culminating in some wonderful scenes and some genuine frights, but Messiah is a film that requires patience. It's not a modern-day horror film. Its lineage is more from a film such as, I Walked With a Zombie. So, you have to settle into the pace and the atmosphere, give the it a chance, and allow it to work its magic. It's a film that can fall flat in the framework of the modern zombie film. For example, if you're looking to set up a multiple film viewing night, then pairing Messiah with a film like '28 Days Later' would be a bad idea—'Let Sleeping Corpses Lie' would be a better partner for Messiah of Evil.

Messiah has its flaws to be sure. The story is complicated and over-wrought, requiring the more-often-than-not kiss of death voice-over narrative technique to tell us things rather than show us things. The voice-over, the dialog, and the music can be hard to take at times, and the film's ending has a rushed botched feel. But the flaws add a kind of surrealistic charm to the film. And in the end, Messiah redeems itself. It all just seems to work.

The supermarket and the movie theater scenes are high points of the film--as are the cameo appearances of Elijah Cook Jr. and Royal Dano. The scenes that take place in the father's house make wonderful use of hauntingly painted backgrounds with forced perspectives to give a foreboding and claustrophobic air that seems to trap the characters. The zombies in Messiah are cognizant, normal moving, and normal in appearance. They are cannibalistic and make a shrill sound when they attack. The blood and gore is minimal.

If you're a patient fan of zombie and horror movies, then Messiah of Evil will work for you. It's a film that defines the horror end of the zombie genre, owing more to the classic zombie films of the past where the fright comes from a sustained mood of eeriness and a general sense of unease. Messiah is a worthy addition to any collection. It's currently one of my Top 20 Zombie Films.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Dead Snow - Winter Break with Nazi Zombies

Here is an efficient little Norwegian zombie movie with subtitles, a polished low budget feel, all the prerequisite zombie elements, and a surprise ending. Dead Snow has a tight thin plot that doesn't get in the way of all the gory action. The zombies are fast-moving, strong, and...(wait for it)...Nazis. While we eventually find out what motives the Nazi zombies—and it's not hunger for human flesh or brains—it remains unclear what force reanimates them (other than shiny yellow metal); although, there is some hint of  supernatural  interference. Whatever it is, these bloodthirsty cannibals are pissed and strong. If you can get past the subtitles, which you should (because dubbing sucks), then there's plenty of rip-roaring gore, humor, and some truly classic scenes awaiting you in Dead Snow.

Some subtitled films can be hard to follow (with all that annoying reading going on), especially if they have complicated plots and lots of dialog, so it helps that Dead Snow makes it easy for us  by taking a simple  approach to its storytelling. The film has an important backstory element, which we get from one of those spooky/loony characters who shows up unexpectedly in movies with the sole purpose of sitting in front of us and clearly and precisely spilling a tale—before being dispatched a short time later. 

A different film would have had great fun showing us the messy origins of the Nazi zombies, but Dead Snow keeps its focus and instead uses the aforementioned character to relay the story of a small isolated Norwegian village during WWII that is inhabited and terrorized by a sadistic Nazi commandant and his soldiers. The horrors perpetrated by the Nazis  generates much hate from the villagers, who endure several years of abuse. However, as the Third Reich collapses and the war comes to an end, the Nazi's grip on the village weakens, and the villagers revolt and attack their captors. The  outnumbered Nazis flee into the snowy mountain wilderness taking with them the precious bounty of gold that they pilfered from the villagers.

The main story takes place in 'modern day', and it concerns a group of med students who take an alcohol and sex-induced winter break at a snowbound mountain cabin. Unbeknown to the group, one of the students, who planned to meet the others after skiing to the cabin, has disturbed a group of long dormant Nazi zombies by taking their gold and hiding it under the cabin floorboards (don't miss the opening, the dream sequence, and a few other minute plot points to pick this up). The group arrives at their destination and the partying begins (Twister anyone??). However, it isn't long before the Nazis zombies and their Commandant (with his impeccable accounting skill) arrive to reclaim their gold and participate in the games. The fun and gore follows as the students take inventive measures to defend themselves--including a using a machine gun mounted on a snow mobile.

The students seem to be making progress, but the Nazis keep popping up out of the snow. One-by-one the students are picked off as Dead Snow winds toward its surprise ending. Dead Snow is a good zombie film. It doesn't get too serious, has excellent frights and gory effects, a chilly location, and a subtle, balanced sense of humor, which at times is reminiscent of the Evil Dead films. Watch for the scene where one of  the students takes unusually aggressive measures to counteract a zombie bite.

This is recommended viewing for fans and a great addition to the genre. It's currently in my collection and one of my Top 20 Zombie Films.

The Zombie Films in My Collection

As promised, here are the zombie films in my collection—in no particular order:

1. Zombie 

2. Let Sleeping Corpses Lie 

3. 28 Days Later 

4. Dead Snow 

5. Planet Terror 

6. Diary of the Dead 

7. Shaun of the Dead 

8. Messiah of Evil 

Recently viewed but not owned

- The Crazies (2010)

Viewing queue

- Fido


Top 20 Zombie Films Page

The How and the Why

I’ve been a fan of zombie movies since I was a teenager. I can remember listening to my frightened schoolmates when I was in middle school in the early seventies as they whispered gory details to me about a film called, The Night of the Living Dead (NLD). I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I thought the talk was exaggeration. Were there really scenes of cannibalism, of people gnawing on bones and entrails? That was when my curiosity with the genre started. Fast forward thirty-odd years, and here I am, a grown man, a father of two. And, I'm still curious and fascinated with zombie movies.

Over the years, my affinity for zombie films hasn’t faded. While I’ve seen many zombie films (including NLD), I feel that I’ve not really delved very deeply into the genre. That realization came to me a couple of years ago when I picked up a DVD of the film, Zombie. The film is required viewing for anyone calling themselves a fan of the genre, especially anyone aspiring to aficionado status. And I hadn't seen it. I hung my head. I wondered about the other zombie films that I hadn't seen, the classics, the recent releases. What had I missed?

So, a little hop forward in time. My girlfriend and I are searching the Comcast On Demand listings. She knows of my preference for zombie films and couldn’t believe that I had never seen Peter Jackson’s Dead Alive, another seminal submission to the zombie genre. I hung my head. We watched it, I loved it, and it was then that I decided to start a collection of zombie DVDs. I would hang my head no more. 

However, having moved residences a couple of times within the last several years, and having started other collections of "things" (and having had to haul these collections around with me), I knew that I did not want my collection to be a complete-ists one. No, my goal would not be to collect every zombie film ever made.  I don't want to hoard and lug these things around with me. Besides, collecting in that fashion seemed too....20th century. Instead, I decided that my collection would be manageable and compact. It would only contain twenty zombie films, and these twenty films would be the films that I considered to be the best zombie films that I had seen to date. This is an important distinction for me for a couple of reasons. 

First of all, I won’t depend on top 20 lists created by others (and available online). Instead, I will view, discuss and rate the films here. I will create my own list, and in the process  become proficient and well-versed in the genre. Besides, I also disagree with a lot of the lists that I've seen. 

Secondly, I intend my collection to be a living/fluid thing, so at any given time it could contain films that might not ever appear on anyone’s top 100 list, much less a top 20 list. That means a film such as Plan 9 From Outer Space might (might!) reside on the same list as NLD, but in my collection, no film is safe and any film can be dropped from the list at any time. So, Plan 9's stint on my list could (would!) be a very short-lived event.

I don’t own a lot of zombie DVDs, so initially I'll build a collection of twenty using what I currently own. I'll add to that number based upon viewings and acquisitions. If I like a film and deem it worthy of adding to my collection, I will acquire it. It might happen that I will purchase a DVD or acquire it by some other means, but purchase or possession by no means constitutes an addition to my collection—unless the total in the collection is less than twenty AND I deem the title worthy of inclusion.. 

As I stated, once a title is added to the collection, it is by no means "safe". After I attain my twenty DVD limit, any and every title is subject to being replaced and dropping off of the list and out of my household. Yes, any DVD that falls from the list, will be sold or traded away. I will not have more than twenty zombie DVDs in my collection. However, I retain the right to have a viewing queue, so it is conceivable, for example, that I might have twenty DVDs in the collection and five in the viewing queue.

So, that’s it. That’s the how and the why of it. In my next few posts. I’ll list what I have in my collection and I’ll start my reviews and list building.