Stag Night of the Dead

Just watched it again and it still makes me laugh. It's not pretending to be Dawn of the Dead or Dawn of the Dead (sorry. Bad in-joke), but it's slightly off the wall and has zombies in it, together with far from the worst story, script, acting, directing, soundtrack, et cetera in the zombiefilm world. Probably closest to Doghouse - also British - in conception and zombie-action level (but with less overt misogyny).

If you're looking for terror, angst and megagore, move on - you'll be disappointed; but if you like zombielite-ish with laughs (think Doghouse, Zombieland), lots of zombies, the odd hero, and some well-placed karma, you may well want to see it more than once.

Zombie comedies, what can we say? I think when we watch them (and with most of them) we think "well it's no Shaun of the Dead". I know not everybody likes Shaun of the Dead, but for those people who do then when a zombie comedy movie comes out it's almost an automatic comparison, is this movie as good as Shaun of the Dead? Well anyways, with Stag Night of the Dead I may compare it to Shaun in some ways but I'm not going to be unfair, this is an independent movie that didn't have the same budget as Shaun, so let's see what it's got. Straight from the outset you can tell this is going to be a fun movie. It's your typical group of "lads" out on a stag night looking for a good time. Turns out the best man has set up something special for the day and the group are going to take part in "Zomball" which is basically shooting zombies with guns that look like they are out of Stargate but shoot like they are out of Ghostbusters (whatever you do, don't cross the streams…). Along with the Stag party they also appear to have taken the stripper with them who adds a nice edge to the laddish behaviour as she sympathises with the groom's predicament of not really being into the whole stag night scenario at that point. Zomball is a simple game for them to play; all they have to do is shoot the zombies and follow the rules of the game. These rules are pretty much stay together, keep your eyes open for recharge points for the guns and never humiliate a zombie. Now, as fans of horror we all know what happens when rules have been defined right? Yes, ever one of the rules are broken and the zombies end up annoyed and out for some human flesh. As the zombies take over the army base where all this is taken place, how will the stag party (and stripper) survive? Well you'll have to watch it and find out won't you? I find the acting in these types of movies something that often lets them down. I have to say though in this movie I was pleasantly surprised. Yeah, there are some actors who seemed to go over the top with their character or who struggled to really come across as believable but for the most part they did a good job. The annoying characters had me wanting them to die way too quickly, and thankfully the most annoying of them all was the first to die. Strangely enough though when he became a zombie he actually became more tolerable and more of an interesting character which was a pleasant surprise. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with this movie. When a movie is made on a budget that's not "Hollywood" size there seems to be a lot of decisions that have to be made, namely how much of it do they blow on the SFX. In this movie they seem to have decided on a more minimalistic approach on the gore and where CGI is used it's actually used with a purpose, not like you're average Hollywood horror that throws so much CGI at us it's like our eyes have taken so much of it in they're going to pop. There are obvious moments when CGI is used but it adds to the scene, it's there for a purpose which is what I like to see. Is it as good as Shaun of the Dead? no, and does that matter? not a bit.

If the mysterious plague sweeping the nation wasn't bad enough, Dean is still going ahead with his doomed wedding tomorrow morning.

That leaves him with a choice.

Pick up the button holes and chocolate fountain as instructed by bridezilla Elaine, or go with five mates (and a stripper) to play 'Zomball' at a top secret military compound where you get to shoot zombies with huge stun guns.

Disobeying the golden rule of Zomball ('never never humiliate a zombie') the stags face overwhelming odds from the massed undead and each stag is hunted down. The truth about Zomball is finally revealed and suddenly the mother-in-law is the least of Dean's problem.

And the beginning of ours. There has been a rash of these brit zombie films of late. They are all directed the same. The production values are OK but they are hard to watch because they aren't very good. Count this in the numbers.

Zombies, strippers, this could have been low budget fun. But sadly it's not bad/good, just bad. Shoddy direction, some terrible acting particularly from the guy playing Ronny. His prep for this appeared to be watching Ali G. A lot. Like his performance this film is all over the place, trying to be funny, scary, dark, political and getting nowhere.. The stripper was seriously cute. I'll at least give it that. I spent most of the movie trying to remember where I'd seen her before. then it hit me. The video for a Euro dance version of the Hall and Oates classic, Out of Touch which came out a few years ago and in which she took off her knickers and threw them in the air. Ah, good times. In this one she doesn't take her pants off although she does get to wear an awesome red catsuit. Can you tell I'm trying to get to 10 lines? There really isn't anything else to say about this one. Other than, avoid unless absolutely hammered and bored.

Being an avid fan of all things zombie, I had to give this movie a go, especially after having read somewhere that it was somewhat of a mix of "The Wedding Singer" and "Night of the Living Dead", and also having read somewhere that it was in the likes of "Shaun of the Dead".

So I bought this movie from Amazon and was excited to see it. When I received it in the mail, I popped it in the DVD player right away, and now having seen it, I am baffled and disappointed. This movie is one of the worst zombie movies I have seen in a long, long time. The story line does have some funny moments, but it is nowhere near the level of "Shaun of the Dead". And the effects in "Stag Night of the Dead" were questionable and laughable.

The zombies in "Stag Night of the Dead" were fairly simple in design, so don't expect extravagant zombie make-up, like that you expect (and see) in Romero's movies and "The Walking Dead" TV series. Some of the zombies were actually alright, though most were so plain that they will not be remembered.

"Stag Night of the Dead" does not have award-winning acting performances. I haven't seen any of these people before, and that is good in its own way. But I never really fully bought into the characters, because the actors/actresses didn't really portray them in a nice way. It was less than mediocre, sadly enough.

And in movies like this, you get your standard reference to Romero, and it wasn't lacking in this movie either. There was some reporter on TV named Georgina Romero, how very original.

Well, I have "Stag Night of the Dead" in my zombie collection now, though it will be bagged and tagged, placed on the shelf of my DVD collection and will most likely never ever be taken out for a second viewing.