Die Nacht der lebenden Loser

The school friends Philip (Tino Mewes), Wurst (Manuel Cortez) and Konrad (Thomas Schmieder) are high-school losers: Philip desires the sexy Uschi (Nadine Germann), an easy girl for successful boys; the complex Konrad lists all the humiliations he has been submitted in school; and Wurst only cares to dope himself and smoke pot. Philip's next door Gothic neighbor Rebecca (Collien Fernandes) has a non-corresponded crush on Philip. When Rebecca performs an ancient voodoo ritual in the cemetery with her friends, Philip and his friends arrive, mocking the ceremony and are accidentally blasted with zombie ashes from Haiti. Then, while driving his van, Wurst smokes marijuana but he has a car accident and the trio dies. However, they awake in the morgue and sooner they realize that they have become zombies. While seeking an antidote in the Necronomicon, Konrad, Wurst and Philip find the advantages of being zombies, becoming successful due to their recently acquired strength.

"Die Nacht der Lebenden Loser" is an extremely funny parody of zombie movies, a sort of "American Pie" meeting "Night of the Living Dead" or "Shaun of the Dead". The result is hilarious and this enjoyable movie is highly recommended to make the viewer forget, for example, the defeat of his soccer team (my case today), since it is impossible not laughing along the 89 minutes running time. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Noite dos Mortos-Bobos" ("The Night of the Dead-Fools")

The film's underlying connection is obviously the lot of zombie films which have filled the last decades since Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" (1968). Although its approach is rather a different one. Not horror or the paranoid feeling of being enclosed by undead is the theme, but the problems and boons that come with being transformed to an undead. So you get the feeling of what's like to be one of the "evil" kind. And in this it's pretty funny, because there are many scenes in which the teenage actors are reacting unexpected, but never miss the point to be what they are: a bunch of maturing youths, whose only interests are in women, booze and party! So you better won't expect to find any trace of subtile character-play or the tragic evaluation of one's unforgiving fate - what doesn't mean that there are no interesting story-bends in it. You bet they are! The cast is fine with me, with the special appearance of Sissi Perlinger, a more or less well known comedian, as way-to-cool mother. Moments of blood & gore are limited, for which it's not the film's intention to shock you out of your skin and also the brief nudity is way too normal nowadays. The German rating is 12+ (PG) and nothing to discuss about. Interestingly there this a similar film out now with the title "Shaun of the dead" which takes on the funny sides of zombie-films, too, although it has a better making and the puns are more precise than in this one. But hey, it's a German film, alright? What else should one expect from a small budget and trivial story? So lean back, enjoy the film ...and remember the horrid times when there were films with the name "Zwei Nasen tanken Super"!

A lesser version of Idle Hands (1999) due to the pot references and a lesser version of Shaun of the Dead (2004) due to the zombie comedy. This would have been great if they were geeks or nerds but they were dorks and that was just annoying. There are plenty of stoner and drug references which could be a political stab against the brain-dead generation but I really doubt that. I didn't laugh very much and I found my attention slipping quite a lot. It was quite funny, quite entertaining, quite interesting and quite average on all levels. Good idea made without flair.

I saw this film as part of the Cinemuerte Horror Film Festival in Vancouver recently, and I have to say that I did enjoy it, as silly as it was.

The characters were affable, the zombie and gore effects were solid, and the storyline was good fun. You actually got to like the three "losers" and the preppy-rich kids were fun to hate. Don't listen to the person who commented on "bad acting", because they don't know what they're talking about. There was no bad acting in this movie at all. The actors were all very natural, and seemed like real teenagers, despite the fantastic situations they were in.

Anyway, when this film will reach DVD on North American shores is hard to tell, but if you like 80's-style teen comedy flicks, and are a fan of zombies and gore (there are some gross and violent scenes, but nothing as extreme as what you'd see in a Romero film, and they're mostly played for laughs), then this film is good for a laugh and worth renting. It's certainly better than most teen flicks coming out of Hollywood these days!

As others have said this is kind "Revenge of the Nerds" meets "Night of the Living Dead". It's also kind of sweet and romantic in a way. It kind of reminded me of Bob Balaban's underrated horror/comedy "My Boyfriend's Back" released about ten years ago or "Idle Hands" a little more recently. After participating in a hilariously screwed-up graveyard ritual with some half-assed satanists, three nerdy losers are killed in car accident (which results from a hilarious bong-related mishap), and come back to life as zombies. They decide to use their undead abilities to get revenge on their enemies and chase after the girls of their dreams.

To this movie's credit it's very funny, and all the characters, especially the three protagonists, are well-drawn and likable. There's also some subtle jokes like the characters attending "Friedrich Nietzsche High School" (which actually might not be a joke in Germany) and the homosexual gym teacher named "Mr. Stalin". The downside though is it's a little too much like a modern-day American teen movie (which makes it pretty ironic that Hollywood is apparently going to remake this). The teens are ridiculously horny even by teenage standards and there is no end to the gross-out, sexually related humor, yet there is also very little (female) nudity. The main protagonist is in love with an icy Aryan blonde, but in typical Hollywood teen movie fashion doesn't seem to notice that the "goth" girl-next-door who taught him how to kiss is absolutely gorgeous. I also wish it were even more "politically incorrect"--the funniest scenes are the ones Hollywood would have been too leery to put in a teen movie, like the irresponsible dope smoking while driving or the scene where the dim-witted satanists accidentally draw a Star of David instead of a pentagram ("The only thing you're going to summon with that is the Jewish Council!").

If you are going to watch a modern-day teenage movie though, you could certainly do worse than this (a lot worse).