Haiku Revu: DeadHeads

22 Mar 2012 - Nic Ho Chee

My haiku review of DeadHeads.

I'm talking zombie,
Running from the man and chomp,
More pathos silent

This played at the recent Frightfest 2011 and was in an unfortunate timeslot that meant we couldn't catch this back in August. It was released to rent recently on DVD and I managed to source a copy.

The film starts nicely in Zombie survival mode, with a van crash disgorging one of the main characters who wakes to the slow realisation that he is one of the shambling undead. The opening scene has a nice homage to Night of the Living Dead where a few people are stuck in what could pass for a farmhouse under siege, with a kid about to Zomb-Out and the standard incoherent parents unable to come to terms with this. After a short time the main character stumbles upon a spectacularly more verbose walking corpse and the pair hot-foot it across the country to allow one of them to profess their undying love to their lost flame.

Whilst the film had all the elements which should have endeared it to my rom-com-zom tastes, the final execution fell somewhat flat. The acting though good in places, was spoilt overall as the dialogue sounded almost entirely dubbed in post. The basic premise had some potential but the characters weren't strong enough to get over the fact that they were zombies and would/could infect other humans causing chaos in their wake. The "can't we all just get along" tone of the film felt too contrived, stretching disbelief into new realms of meh.

One thumbs down, not really my cup of tea (although it should have been.)