Juan dos Mortos

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 Havana is depicted as a place where Elevators don't work, Medicine is outdated, and things just generally look run down.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.

Welcome to zombies, Cubano style! This movie was effective on many levels. It's a good comedy, with tips of the hat to other films in the genre, like Braindead or Resident Evil, and with refreshing humour. It is also a zombie film, although the horror is minimal. But more than this, it is a social commentary on Cuban life style, with great quotes like "It doesn't look that different to me", when zombies roam Havana.

Unfortunately, afflicted by international isolation, Cuban culture is not something many people are familiar with, including myself, so I can't say if Cubans are really like depicted in the film. I can tell you that, placed in a small seaside town in Spain, the movie could have had almost the same effect. The heroes are ordinary, stupid and selfish, but they grow on you.

Bottom line: If you like zombie flicks, comedy and/or Spanish film, then you will love Juan de los Muertos. I enjoyed it and recommend it.

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.

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.

It probably helps to have a degree of familiarity with the troubled socio-political landscape of Cuba to fully appreciate certain aspects of zombie comedy Juan of the Dead, but even if, like me, you don't know your Castro from your Che Guevara, this neat little flick still packs enough decent laughs and scares to make it a fun time for fans of the living dead.

Juan of the Dead's strongest suit is its disparate cast of somewhat shady characters who still manage to be an extremely amiable bunch despite their dubious morality and, in some cases, a general lack of compassion for fellow human beings. The film also benefits greatly from lots of frenetic zombie killing (enhanced by impressive practical and CGI special effects), several outstandingly funny moments that thankfully require no knowledge of Cuba's complex history (the funniest being a 'touching' rooftop scene between Juan and and his 'dying' friend Lazaro), some cool visuals (an underwater shot of zombies on the seabed being my favourite) and a hot heroine in the form of Juan's sexy daughter Camila (Andrea Duro).

The plot might not be anything particularly memorable, offering up the usual gruesome encounters between the living and the flesh-eaters, with the survivors' number steadily dwindling as a result, but it is refreshing enough in its execution to definitely warrant a watch.

6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for the awesome harpoon and cable mass zombie slaughter scene.