12. DeadHeads

I was only a matter of time before a zombie movie made the list.  Most of the great zombie movies start out the same, a person being tossed (like a newborn baby**) into the zombie apocalypse.  Well, this movie starts out in the same predicament.  Only our protagonist IS a zombie.  Shyamalan twist!  Confused on how he ended up in Colorado surrounded by your typical zombies, Mike (Michael McKiddy), is left stumbling through the woods, trying to survive, until he meets Brent (Ross Kidder), another zombie like him.  By that I mean a zombie that is able to think, eat real food, talk, etc.  When Mike discovers an engagement ring in his pocket he remembers his girlfriend and sets out on a journey to find her and finally pop the question.  See this just confuses me because even if she does say yes and they do get married, the vows are "til death do us part" and he's already dead, so in my opinion it's just pointless.  Anyways, the two meet up with an old man named Cliff (Harry Burkey) and another zombie (classic zombie) that they call Cheese (Markus Taylor) who they decide to train and treat like a pet (imagine Sloth form The Goonies as a zombie).  Together they set out on a road trip to Michigan to find the girl that got away.  The only thing in their way is a group of agents sent out to kill them.

If this plot sounds ridiculous, it's because it is.  I'm all for zombies evolving, they have been doing it for almost a century.  When zombies first started appearing in film they were people hypnotized by voodoo magic.  Then zombies became the walking dead due to the radiation.  Then it became some sort of virus that infected them creating a worldwide pandemic where the infected move at a lightning fast pace.  So why shouldn't they be able to evolve into a more human like state.  It definitely seems to be a trend nowadays. Zombies are playing video games, falling in love, hell they even have a movie where if you become a zombie all of a sudden you're an awesome stripper. But I don't get why they wouldn't all be at this state instead of just the two main characters.

This movie seemed like a really long student film.  The lighting was pretty bad and some scenes had TERRIBLE color correction.  The sound at times was too echoey and needed to be re dubbed.  And what film student hasn't made or worked on a zombie film.  In fact, I'm pretty sure I've worked on student zombie films that had a better production level then this.  The script was pretty standard.  It had the classic character arcs as if they had followed a "How to Write a Screenplay" manual.  And the acting.  Aside from the main character (who was a little better than mediocre at best), the performances were over the top.  Well, maybe not Cheese.  That character is suppose to be over the top.  But Ross Kidder's portrayal of Brent was so obnoxious, I was ready for him to die within the first two minutes of his introduction.  Unfortunately, he lasted a little bit longer than that.  Another thing that drove me crazy was the main character's arm kept falling off.  Then he would just reconnect it perfectly, nerves and all.  Even his shirt seam seemed to reconnect.  This makes no sense!!

I think if the script had a few more rewrites and done some recasting and cut down the movie, it might have been a decent film.  But they didn't, so here we are.  If you love zombie movies (which I do) then it's worth a watch (just one though).  I mean I have seen worse zombie films.  

** That was an inside joke.  I don't really toss newborn babies.

Rating: * (I feel mean)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZK6gZn38yQ