A Cadaver Christmas

I liked this movie. My favorite things are the cinematography and the writing.

I have tried to watch so many Christmas horror movies and I can't get past the first 10 minutes because I don't like the cinematography. As far as low budget Christmas horror movies go - the camera work in this is better than most of them.

There are some really funny parts too. The writing is also better than many of the other Christmas horror movies I've seen.

I've been trying to find good movies in the genre for years and so many of them are horrible. If you're the same way, I feel confident recommending A Christmas Cadaver.

I love B grade horror films. I love zombie movies. I love over the top Troma humor. I am even an indie filmmaker. I did not like this movie.

The premise sounds really fun: A janitor enlists several locals to help him fight zombies in a university on Christmas eve. Instead of an enjoyable romp with tons of blood and gore, we get long passages where nothing happens and banal dialog that is supposed to pass for jokes.

The film is really nothing more than a low budget vanity project by a group of guys who aren't as funny or talented as they want to be. It's the kind of situation that all indie movie makers have been in (me included) where enthusiasm can't compensate for a bad script. I will check back after they've made a few more movies, though. I'm betting they do get better down the line.

As a zombie aficionado, it was somewhat of a treat to sit down and watch "A Cadaver Christmas" actually. I had never heard about it anywhere when I came upon it by sheer random luck. And as it was something with zombies, it caught my interest and I decided to give it a go.

So what is "A Cadaver Christmas" you might think? Well, think "Dead Alive", "Feast" and "Shaun of the Dead" mixed up into one movie, then you basically have "A Cadaver Christmas". It was a great movie to watch, good amount of blood and mayhem, good story and nice characters. However, the movie slacked somewhat on the acting part, as it wasn't the best of performances to be seen in this movie. But for a low budget movie, they pulled it off as to be expected.

The story was simple and straight forward as most zombie movie story lines tend to be. A group of people get stuck somewhere with zombies and have to survive. And of course, the survivors are underdogs of society, as they tend to be in these types of movies, so nothing new here.

Actually the characters were the best part of the movie. You had a drunk (played by Hanlon Smith-Dorsey), a bartender (played by Ben Hopkins), a former police officer (played by Yosh Hayashi), a perp (played by Edward O'Ryan) and a janitor (played by Daniel Rairdin-Hale). These characters were extreme in their own ways, but it worked out well enough, because they all added flavor to the movie.

For a low budget zombie movie, then "A Cadaver Christmas" is actually at the high end of the scale, because the story was enjoyable (despite the often questionable acting), and the characters were fun and likable. Plus, and most importantly, there was a good amount of blood and gore in the movie to keep most gore hounds satisfied.

If you enjoy zombie movies and don't mind watching even those that don't have a multi million dollar budget, then you should check out "A Cadaver Christmas".

Forced to bring a group of disbelievers into a college dorm, a janitor leads the group through the halls filled with zombies reanimated through an on-campus experiment and must find a way of getting out safely.

This turned out to be quite an enjoyable and cheesy zombie effort. One of the biggest pluses here is the fact that there's a rather enjoyable atmosphere created from the goofy action presented. There's some rather enjoyable material to be found here as the plot allows this ample opportunities to get rather silly at times where the groups' bumbling nature in regards to both offensive and defensive tactics against the zombies gets rather silly at times, utilizing mops and brooms for offense, slipping and sliding on blood-soaked hallways and using everything from desks and notebooks to provide a barrier against the encroaching hordes and the over-the-top nature here keeps this one quite enjoyable. Combined along with the jokes and word-play present, this one has more laughs than expected though this one never forgets to have a hand in the scares which is what allows this one to keep the zombies as threats. They're the slow, shuffling variety which keeps the factor here based on the overall number of creatures there swarming around them as they fight them off, resulting not only in pretty enjoyable scenes but also plenty of action within as the group has plenty of time to fight them off. This also adds some pretty decent amounts of gore to the proceeds, and while these make for some rather entertaining measures, it does have a few flaws in that the comedic nature wears thin after a while with some of the jokes loosing their luster and the whole enterprise being loaded by a rather preposterous storyline that gets almost no fleshing out and remains ludicrous upon scrutiny. Otherwise, there's a whole lot to like here.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity and comedic sexual scenes.

When you watch this movie, you have to understand that the camp and the quirks are there on purpose. They're meant to be pointed at and joked about.

I enjoyed this movie immensely, and I think it's a great movie to get a group of friends together and just have a good time with. It's got some superb editing and cinematography, as well as charming performances from the cast.

WARNING: I may be a bit biased, as I attend the college this was filmed at, and one of my professors created the movie.