Zombie Dearest

As Craptacular Compilations, Volume 2 rolls on, the feeling of the zombie flu is hitting me. In the beginning, the Midnight Collection: Zombies compilation was going a lot better then I had expected with some older classics. Yet, the second I got to the movies from the mid-noughties, it all went downhill. Sensing my dismay the horror gods seemed to give me a reprieve. Zombie Dearest is not a great film, but man is it better than the last two on the set.

The movie is about a failed, and really unfunny stand-up comedian who basically cheats on his girlfriend and finds himself fixing up a house she owns out of town as a way to get back in her good graces. While digging up the septic tank to save money he finds a zombie which he makes a wish on accidentally and brings it to life. It is later in the film you find out that apparently when you make a wish while holding a zombie's Johnson, the wish comes true...Yeah, you read that right. Honestly, though Zombie Dearest isn't that bad. The goofy premise and a few of the jokes are actually pretty funny. The acting isn't terrible, and the did what they could with the budget. I also want to praise an indie zombie film that isn't just about a group of random survivors that need to survive while learning the real evil is mankind. So, that looks good on you Zombie Dearest.

Now, that being said "ZD" sometimes struggles to hold your interest. There is a weird voice-over by the main character at the beginning that leads into having the girlfriend take over the movie for a bit. The comedian then comes back and becomes the main character again, but it was a weird set of events that just didn't sit right with me from a movie flow perspective. Not that she didn't deserve to be the main character but that they set him up with this big backstory and then almost gave up on him for 10 minutes like he was out of the film. The movie also seems to sputter a bit in the middle, making me think that maybe shaving off about ten minutes would have made it a bit quicker paced and easier to consume.

Overall though, Zombie Dearest is a bit of surprise on this collection. Not a great film, but really worth at least one view if you don't mind indie horror, and want to see a different plot to a Z film.

Deborah had enough of her failed comic-writer husband Gus Lawton. She leaves him for her childhood family farmhouse. He follows her and she reluctantly takes him back. The septic tank goes bad. Gus has a fight with the repairman and he takes on the task of digging up the tank. Instead, he digs up a zombie and then it gets strange.

I like this indie horror idea. The difficulty is that comedy is hard. I laughed a little about r-word argument, but nothing else. They need a good comedian to do the work and a good comedic filmmaker to ensure the comedy to work. This is a low-budget indie and they just don't have it.

This movie was fun to watch with great performances by the cast along with a script that was mostly well written but some of the dialogue could have been better. The cinematography was also excellent and the special effects were well done as well.