Dead Shack

Taking a relaxing trip to the woods, a young kid joining his best friends' family on a camping vacation in the wilderness finds their next-door neighbor is keeping a cannibalistic secret with her and must find a way to force their parents to believe them in order to get away alive.

This here wasn't all that bad of an effort. One of the more impressive elements present in this one is the fact that there's quite a large amount of atmosphere built up here alongside the surprisingly funny comedy. The opening half, filled with looming shots of the woods at play here as well as creating a strong central air that grows progressively more intense the more this one unfolds as their discoveries in the woods and finally the first peak in the house makes for quite a strong set-up. Once they actually witness what's going on in the cabin, where the deformed creature is feasting on the victim they've been spying on makes for a nice launch into the latter half where the zombified creature is loose and they must rely on each other to survive as the action there is quite fun. From the surprise visit to their house which features the great brawl being observed from the hiding spot that has to remain undiscovered to the chaos of the creature ambushing them in the house and being forced to deal with the shambling creature and the victim stashed away to the later confrontation back in their house with the transformed girlfriend, they give this the kind of big high-end action required to enjoy here. That all leads into the film's biggest action scene with the final retaliation back at the cabin where this one really manages to score nicely with the outdoor confrontations with the zombies, the final brawling in the house where everyone tends to take a little damage and leading up to the gruesome resolution sequence that's quite fitting considering the bloodshed unleashed. Given that the fun of all this is from the rather great comedy between the group, whipping off one- liners and insults against each other as well as engaging in some rather hilarious situations that make this feel far funnier than it really is, adding another nice layer to the film. While these here do make this one rather fun, there are a few minor issues to be had here. The main problem here is the fact that there's some rather glaring pacing issues here that crop up from time-to-time, as the film takes way too long to get the family out to the cabin with it taking too much time showing them traveling in the car, stopping at the restaurant and antagonizing each other there, it all just really drags this one out and it takes awhile before they actually show up in the cabin. Even then it takes awhile for the true horror to be felt, and it's somewhat stilted pacing is a minor problem. Likewise, there are also some minor issues with the low-budget nature showing up from time-to-time, as the low light levels and somewhat cheap- looking gore do get to this one at times and it's rather obvious. However, these aren't really distracting and it's quite fun regardless.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and children-in- jeopardy.

The puns are just flying left and right. It does not care about being political correct and if you don't mind your horror to have a lot of comedy in it, then you will not be disappointed. Quite the opposite is the case with this one. The dad character is really goes for it and probably would not qualify for any Dad of the year awards or what not. His choice for new wife, how he "handles" his kids or life in general is borderline to say the least.

But it's funny in a very crazy kind of way. And it's more than entertaining. And then there is all the blood and gore and horror to be dealt with. It's almost an added bonus, if you will. Even if I would have liked this to go another direction, it almost holds its premise throughout. Which is a good thing, tone-wise ... I liked it

This film is much better than it has any right to be and that all comes from writing and characterisation. They clearly didn't have the budget or time to put together something truly polished, but what they made is pretty much better than many horrors out there today.

The fact that you actually care about the characters and what happens to them is remarkable, and it doesn't have to rely on a crazy villain or nudity to get your attention. The dialogue is immature, but it is meant to be, seeing as how the leads are all adolescents. The only real downside is the pacing and editing as both are a little jarring and detract from the overall quality of the production.

Overall I would definitely recommend this movie to any comedy horror fan. It isn't the most hilarious or gory, but it is smart and clearly the effort was made to produce a unique story, and it works.

Roger takes his two kids, Summer and Colin, and their friend Jason to a vacation cabin in the woods. Summer hates her young stepmom Lisa. The kids take a walk and find a house with disturbing evidence. A woman (Lauren Holly) brings home two douchebags and the kids spy her feeding the two men to her zombie.

Summer and Jason are a little bit adorable. Colin is annoyingly stupid. Stupidity is one of the more annoying tropes in teen characters if they're not funny at it. Roger is also really stupid but at least, he can blame the alcohol. I'm actually with who gets killed. I wouldn't mind if we lose one more specific character. This is a low budget comedy horror indie competently made. It's not horrible but it's not good either.

A dysfunctional family vacation turns bloody when three teenage kids discover that their new neighbour for the weekend Lauren Holly (looking pretty kick ass kitted out in skin tight bite-proof tactical gear), is killing off people to feed to her zombie family in yet another cabin in the woods horror comedy. This ode to 80's genre flicks written and directed by Peter Rich (his band HUMANS provide the movies cool synth score), benefits from some likeable characters and good performances as well as some top notch practical effects which hit the killswitch hard when it counts (lots of shotgun blasts and exploding heads). It doesn't exactly reinvent the wheel, but for a light hearted isolated zombie-and-mouse game of a movie this is an easy, breezy watch.