Il cacciatore di zombie

Burdened only by a cheesy name, Juan of the Dead is zombiepocalpyse gold. When zombies infest Cuba, Juan, Lazaro, and company see a business opportunity. To give you an idea, Juan answers the phone, "Juan of the dead, we kill your loved ones." For squeamish people like me, rest assured that the zombie violence is comically creative instead of gruesome. Two words: flatbed truck. If for no other reason, see the movie for that HILARIOUS scene. The legitimately funny, light social commentary of Cuban lifestyle is unexpected and makes this movie special. Zombie-run public transportation is "no different than usual," and there are constant cracks about rafting to Miami, but "only as a last resort." The lead actor Alexis Diaz de Villegas oozes charisma and charmed me in the first five minutes. If you're a fan of how Dawn of the Dead mixes zombies and politics, definitely check out this movie.

Juan of the Dead is the first Cuban Zombie movie ever made. Juan and his friend, Lazaro, wake up one morning to a Zombie invasion in Havana. The Cuban government is reporting that the Zombie outbreak is "Americans trying to undermine the Cuban government". Obviously poking fun at the Cuban's political propaganda.

Juan and his friends decide that they can make a successful small business by killing and disposing of Zombies. For a small fee Juan can dispose of your unwanted loved ones for you. So an unlikely bunch of heroes come together and arm themselves to rid the city of Zombies for a profit.

What makes this movie special is that you get a real up close and personal view of what it is like to live in Havana under the Communist Regime. The scenery is beautiful and sad at the same time. Havana is depicted as a place where Elevators don't work, Medicine is outdated, and things just generally look run down. Zombies are merely thrown into the mix. What comes across loud and clear is how proud the Cuban people are. Even when facing the end of life as he knows it, Juan does not want to leave his homeland.

I saw this movie at the World Premiere in Toronto at TIFF, so I had the pleasure of hearing the Q&A after the film. The Director, Alejandro Brugues, and his crew were excited to be in Canada for the first time and mentioned that they were going to a Jay's game before flying back to Cuba…LOL He seemed surprised that the film comes across with a political message, because it was not his intention to do so.

It is rare that a film combines, satire, parody, thrills, scary zombies, and deadpan humor. Such is the film Juan of the Dead.

Plot is simple. Zombies try to take over Cuba. But the government says they are "dissidents" created by the Americans to undermine Cuba. In a very clever film, the director, Alejandro Bruques, takes us on a fantasy ride of zombie threats and humor with many political points along the way.

Several island residents form a motley crew of a trans gurl, a muscle bound dude, a hot babe and a guy named "California", is just the beginning of zombie mayhem.

They even open a business, "we kill your loved one" to earn a few extra bucks off the zombies...Cuban style.

The budget is not mentioned in the film overview, but I bet they really made a very low budge stretch quite a bit. From the beginning to end credits it is a delight. Every film student should see this movie to see what you can do with imagination and not the fancy cameras profiled in American media.

Their first kill has a harpoon go through a zombie to kill an old lady standing right behind the zombie. Ooops! A wooden oar weapon is so decrepit that we would never use it as an oar.

There is also the famous car/boat that many refuges use to flee Cuba used to escape the onslaught of zombies. In one scene, an attack by numerous zombies is thwarted by a single harpoon and a "rally around the flag pole". Heh, heh.

A slow motion arrow is an tick toward Matrix.

The film introduces a stereo type American and since the crew does not speak English, Juan introduces himself by saying "My name is Juan". Get it. It beginning Spanish class the first thing you learn is "Yo me llamo Juan". Very funny.

They spoof Bruce Lee with a freeze frame at the end. Ending credits are terrific. There are subtitles so get ready and just read them.

The ending credits are really inventive as is the entire film. I have never seen it in a bargain bin, so I will try and make my own copy from a TV showing. I recommend this highly as a very funny, highly inventive, well shot film about the zombie Apocalypse.

Alright, well this is the first Cuban movie I have ever seen, so it being a zombie movie just made it all the more glorious to watch. I had some initial doubts about this movie, but being a zombie movie, I just couldn't let the opportunity pass me by. And now that I have seen it, I must admit that I am more than pleasantly surprised. This movie was really great.

I assume that it would be the Cuban equivalent to "Shaun of the Dead", probably there the name came from as well. This movie combines humor, political satire and zombies in a very nice mixture, and it just worked out nicely.

The story is about Juan (played by Alexis Díaz de Villegas) and his friend Lazaro (played by Jorge Molina) who get on day by day in a not all that glamorous life, when the living dead start to overrun the city, sending the entire island into chaos and destruction. The story was actually quite good, and it was nice to see this approach to the zombie genre.

The characters in the movie were really nice, and they had very distinct and unique characteristics and personalities, which were nicely portrayed on the screen. So aside from being a zombie movie, the director gave the actors great chances to let the characters grow and develop on the screen. The group of survivors was made up of very different people, each with their own unique characteristics, which was really great, because there was something for almost everyone's liking here; heroic leader, funny sidekick, tough woman, muscular man who is scared of blood, über-gay guy, and much more.

"Juan of the Dead" was actually nicely made. There was a very nice sense of authenticity to the movie, as if you were there in Cuban with the people in the movie. And the zombies were actually quite nicely made as well, in regards to make-up and prosthetics. However, what really made this movie work was the humor, and the way it was used. I was thoroughly amused throughout the movie, and I loved the sense of humor that Lazaro had, he was just beyond cool.

There were some nice new ideas introduced in the movie as well, stuff that haven't been seen in zombie movies before. I especially liked the scene with the pickup truck with the harpoon and the tow cable. That was awesome. I will not give away the detail here, just watch it for yourself.

If you like zombie movies, then you definitely do not want to miss out on "Juan of the Dead", because it is indeed great fun, and with "Juan of the Dead" director Alejandro Brugués has put Cuba on the world map of the zombie outbreak. This movie was even far better than so many of the American produced low budget zombie movies out on the market. So "Juan of the Dead" is really a zombie movie to take notice of. Even if you are reluctant to foreign language movies, then you should sit down to watch "Juan of the Dead" if you like zombie movies, trust me!

Two rotten thumbs up for this movie.

I didn't know anything about this film going in to see it, and was very impressed! I'll hold my hand up to being very unfamiliar with Cuban cinema, but horror and zombies especially are my thing. However, in general, me and comedy-horror have had a somewhat checkered past. This film, however, works very well and on a few different levels: Being a ZomCom, the comedy violence works well and isn't overplayed; the characters are parodies of what you'd expect, but again only taken as far as the tone of the film would allow; and as for tone, its where this film really comes into its own and makes it well worth seeing, elevating it above the status of most mid-budget horror. The political overtones are just that, and are meant to be taken as very obvious and tongue-in-cheek, and play well with the general idea that the characters know they are being lied to by the government and just play along, and for the audience it's made quite clear that any political subtext is not meant to override the point of the film as mostly a bit of a laugh. The scatological humour is not frequent but is there and can be taken or left depending on your personal tastes, but some of the jokes are genuinely funny and work well, and the interplay of the two male leads is very similar to Frost/Pegg in it's chummy familiarity and is something that hangs the whole films together nicely. The feel of the movie is very interesting, with a good mix of a Dawn of the Dead (remake) apocalyptic desolation, with Spaghetti Western styling, against a backdrop of 50s styling in both scenery (as you'd expect in Cuba), but also 40s and 50s farce in several places. Alexis Díaz de Villegas plays the everyman hero excellently, and with a style that reminds me of some of the world-weary yet streetwise heroes you might have previously seen in older cinema. Think Charlie Croaker in Italian Job (the original, of course). I wouldn't be surprised to see him crop up again in Western-released films before too long! All in all, it mixes to make a very original-feeling zombie movie and totally worth watching.