It’s Friday…
Ahem…I mean Frightday…
And I have some recommendations for you to enjoy this weekend…
Okay…This Frightday’s theme is…
The Zom-Com, or Zomedy.
It isn’t a new concept…
Hell…I’ve been laughing during zombie movies ever since Freddy told Tina that he knew she was in there…
Because he could smell her brains…
That was Dan O’Bannon’s Zom-Com Masterpiece, Return of the Living Dead, and the one that started it all…
For me.
Let’s take a chronological look at the best, funniest, and most original, Zom-Coms, or Zomedies since Return of the Living Dead that you may not have seen…But should.
Fido (2006) – Here’s a fun one…Imagine a world where tamed zombies are kept like housepets, or more appropriately, slaves…In a 50’s style era where humans have defeated and enslaved the zombie population…Lucky households can control their very own zombie using a remote controlled collar that curbs the creature’s natural propensity for snacking on humans. Billy Connolly is amazing as the zombie turned subservient servant…This one is undeniably unique and totally twisted…You’ll dig it.
Wasting Away (2007) – Sometimes referred to as, Aaah! Zombies!!…This film does an interesting thing…It deals with perspective and point of view through the lens of a Wizard of Oz camera…Reality is where the film begins, and much like when Dorothy was in Kansas, reality is presented in black and white…But as the film takes a turn, and our main characters are “turned”, the perspective changes and the fantasy is presented in glorious color…It was hysterical watching these zombies transition back and forth between fantasy and reality…And as they realize what they’ve become, young Tim says…”I don’t feel like a zombie.” The response to this, is a line that defines the whole point of view scenario that they’ve created here…”Yeah, well idiots don’t feel stupid…But they are.”
Dance of the Dead (2008) – This entry into the Zom-Com history books has a vibe that kind of reminded me of the loveable losers in Night of the Creeps…It is focused on the exploits of the not so popular population of a Georgia high school. These misfit students have to save their prom from legions of undead, who have crawled from the cemetary right next to the nuclear power plant…This film adds an interesting addition to the lore…Zombies apparently like music…Specifically garage-band rock and roll…Who knew?
The Revenant (2009) – Before David Anders was a zombie on the CW’s iZombie, he cut his teeth in this very funny buddy zomedy-action film…Now the film defines them as Revenants, a creature somewhere between a zombie and a vampire…But as they begin to decompose, despite their desire to drink blood, these fellows seem to be straight-up zombies…Chris Wylde was funny as hell, as the smart-assed best buddy, and the two begin to behave like a zombified Batman and Robin, serving up vigilante style justice all over their fair city.
Doghouse (2009) – Imagine if you will…A group of friends are trying to help their friend heal his broken heart…They rent a minibus, and take a trip somewhere special…The small English village of Moodley, a place where the women outnumber the men four to one…But, a biological agent has infected the female residents and transformed them into cannibalistic zombies…With a taste for men…It was another new and hilarious twist on the genre, having women be the monsters, with their intended prey being exclusively men…It was also truly hysterical, and totally original.
DeadHeads (2011) – This film was written and directed by the Pierce Brothers, a couple of kids who admired the special effects work their father did on Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead…They grew up, and created this funny road-trip Zom-Com, about Mike and Brent, a couple of surprisingly sentient zombies who head out on a journey to reunite Mike with the girl who he feels he must profess his love to…The odyssey they are on is a funny and interesting one…Brent is a wise-ass who enlists the help of a mindless hungry beast of a zombie who he refers to as “Cheese”…And as they road-trip their way across the countryside, healthy doses of both Zom and Com will be found along the way.
Warm Bodies (2013) – This film directed by Jonathan Levine (All the Boys Love Mandy Lane) took the Zom-Com genre to a completely new level…It’s a Rom-Zom-Com…The cast is brilliant, and so is the story of a young zombified man who when he sees Julie for the first time…Something comes alive inside of him…And as his love grows, he slowly begins to evolve back into a human…It has plenty of funny moments…Also the classic romantic comedy formula is applied…And the addition of Boneys, a race of zombies that are the embodiment of pure evil, is a welcomed and menacing new twist not yet seen in this genre.
Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015) – I truly enjoyed this film that was directed by Michael Landon’s son, Christopher…It tells the tale of three friends who are the sole members of a scout troop…Two of the friends feel as though they have grown out of scouting, but have stayed loyal to the troop for their friend, Augie…You see, Augie suffered the loss of his father, so the rapidly maturing Ben and Carter, chose to remain by his side…Even though this loyalty is the equivalent of social suicide for them…But now that the zombie apocalypse is starting in their small town, it is up to these three brave scouts to band together and save the people that they love, from imminent consumption.
I’d hear what I now know is the song “Toccata” by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer and I knew what was going to happen…
The Video Store Clerk 