I Was a Teenage Zombie

"I Was a Teenage Zombie" follows a group of teenagers who kill a drug dealer at their high school and dump his corpse in a toxic river that turns him into a zombie. Chaos ensues in true eighties teen film fashion.

One of the weirder offerings of the late 1980s, "I Was a Teenage Zombie" is borderline-"so bad it's good," but it has several things going for it that make it at least semi-interesting. I have seen some compare the film to those of John Waters, and the comparison is most definitely warranted. The film has the kitschy, gritty edge of Waters' early work, with a dash of John Hughes, resting in the framework of a solid horror movie.

The film certainly stands out among the crop of late-eighties horror films, when the slasher was in its death knell between 1987 and the post-"Scream" landscape. It is aesthetically on par with the greatest of eighties teen cult films, and boasts some economical yet serviceable special effects. It's quite clearly low-budget, but rather charming in all its ridiculousness. The acting is by and large quite poor as well, punctuated with bad delivery and bad dialogue. The film has the distinguishing feature of boasting a wildly memorable soundtrack, including a title track by The Fleshtones and other songs from the Violent Femmes and the late and great Alex Chilton. Are you interested yet?

Overall, it's easy to see why "I Was a Teenage Zombie" has become a minor cult hit, though at the same time, it's surprising that the cult hasn't grown over the years. The film's niche audience sees in it precisely what it was striving for, and expects no more and no less of it. It's an absurd film, humorous and utterly inane, but ceaselessly amusing. Fans of low-budget cheese will have a ball with this one. 7/10.

One of the best movies I've seen in a while. No wonder it is in the Criterion Collection. Yes, of course its stupid,but so what? Does stupid necessarily equal bad? I don't think so at all.. This movie had almost everything I admire about zombie and more generally, horror movies: the camp (poor video/audio quality and dialogue in this regard) action, raunchiness, some gore yes, and laughs. I thought the plot was entirey original and well thought out. The film had many likable characters and includes great performances by the drug dealer and the two main heroes. In fact they were most all endearing. There were one or two particularly gross scenes which I could have done without. Awesome soundtrack also. Highly recommend to any zombie fan. Bravo!

"I Was a Teenage Zombie" is a classic low, low budget indie film. It has bad sound and cheesy film quality, but the characters are as good as any high school horror/comedy film I've ever seen, and the acting is better than some.

The screenplay could have been tighter. It dragged in places. They probably could have cut 15 or 20 minutes out of it without losing any of the fun. But it contains enough laugh-out-loud gags and gag-out-loud gore to make it well worth your while. It's a must-see for indie film buffs.

I happened on a audio cassette of the soundtrack long before I actually saw the movie.

It is the best movie soundtrack I've ever heard, bar none.

Anybody know where I can get a CD of it?

If you are a member of the "It's so bad its good" crowd you are going to love this movie..We have it all here friends...Men who are obviousley in their late 20's trying to play high school students and a vietnam war veteran drug dealer who looks like an 18 year old freddy mercury! Yep it's cue card heaven..Theres a guy that looks like a fat rick nelson from cheap trick (even wears a cap)...there is a henry winkler (fonzie) character...I could go on but what's the use..Check the bottom shelf of your local video store's horror section..dust this thing off and take it home you're sure to find it giggle inducing.

This movie smells worse than a rotting corpse. The film maker wasn't interested in little things like continuity, synchronized dialogue, or comprehensible shot angles. I'm undecided on whether to put this in the "it's so bad it's good" category because it may just be too horrible. Watch it and decide for yourselves.