Showing posts with label Dance of the Dead. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dance of the Dead. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Prombies!

Like that nonsense word there? I have a deep-seated need to combine words like that; it is an illness, and I have no cure. SO COMBINE I SHALL!

I have literally just finished with Dance of the Dead (like, I'm watching the credits roll and listen to the strangely sweeping score as I type this). I am in love. I'm going to marry this movie, you see, and have horrible half human half DVD babies with it that beg the world for death. It's gonna be pretty memorable.

Simply put, this is a movie about a small town living under the literal shadow (and toxic output) of the local three tower power plant. Zombies become a serious problem on prom night, with some of the COOLEST grave rising I've ever seen. I think they launched the actors out of the ground on pneumatic rams. These actors would shoot out of their graves horizontally, then land on their feet, running. I wanna learn to do this-- I would freak my nieces and nephews out daily.

In a rare touch, I liked all of the characters in this movie, and was genuinely sad (and even surprised a few times) when a character would die or be zombified. Most of the survivors are the kids who never made it to prom to begin with, like the science fiction club, who really looked and acted like they should have been right along side John Cusack, Darren Harris, and Anthony Micheal Hall in Sixteen Candles. You also have a very angry redneck/punk played by Justin Welborn, who was also in The Signal another movie I absolutely loved. I've really lucked out with NetFlix lately!

This is an ensemble cast-- the sneering amateur rockers, the main smart ass and his long suffering girlfriend who has one of the few legitimate falls while fleeing I've seen in horror. She also uses her shoe as a weapon very effectively, which has me rethinking my "no chunky/awkward yet fabulous shoes" stance in the ensuing zombigeddon. A heavy platform would do some serious damage, and it's already in red, so no staining!

There are some great, creative kills, and seriously, ZOMBIES AT THE PROM. What more do I have to tell you?

I also have to reveal some serious geekage here. Now, I lust for Mike Rowe, of Dirty Jobs fame; he is a hunka-hunka burnin' LUV, and he can sing, too! He did an episode around Halloween of 2007 where he met a guy who does special effects for movies, specifically horror. He turned Mike into a lumbering homunculus, and then shot him. He also threatened Mike with physical harm several times, which amused Mike so much he pushed the man's buttons more. I squee'd with some seriously nerdery when I realized that same FX guy, Toby Sells, had a bit part in this as "The Kwiki Mart Attendant". He also did a lot of the FX for this movie! EEE!!! I'm a dork!

All of the actors were great choices for their parts-- no one had that air brushed, squeaky, toothpaste commercial "attractiveness" that isn't all that attractive (to me anyway), though Hollywood and Fox t.v assure us repeatedly that they are the pinnacle of human evolution. Everyone was interesting looking, which made them more believable in their roles. Of course the cheerleader was blond and perky, of course one of the Sci Fi geeks was a ginger. No one seemed out of place or miscast, and the zombie makeup was great, too.

Best part of this movie, though? Zombie sex. Yep. Total zombie nookie. Come for the chaos, stay for the undead bumpin'.