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April 25, 2005
Dead and Breakfast: A Screaming Success
Did you do like I said and go see Dead & Breakfast this weekend? I sure hope so, 'cause it was pretty great. Anyone who enjoyed Shaun of the Dead will surely flip for D&B. I got extra lucky since the Two Boots Pioneer, which screened the film, showed The Evil Dead right after, so I was treated to a pretty stellar undead double-feature. But you all know about ED, so let me tell you about Dead & Breakfast.
Honestly, there isn't too much that's new in the film. The plot is essentially a hodgepodge of familiar zombie horror tropes (young city folks in the country are beset by hordes of the undead). Of course, the fact that an Evil Dead poster can be seen in the background in a few scenes, shows that the homage was completely intentional.
There were a couple of fun twists thrown in, however. For instance, instead of the normal lumbering, sub-mental kind of zombie, some of D&B's bad guys were actually pretty sharp--especially their leader, ably portrayed by Oz Perkins, who had a nice "Evil Ash" from Army of Darkness kind of thing going on. Also, the film's take on zombie lore was interesting, with the focus on Eastern (specifically Thai Buddhist) traditions instead of the usual Sumerian rituals or nuclear waste. These elements were more than sufficient to lend the film a hint of freshness.
Throughout the film, there are plenty of head-scratching moments, where improbable events take place with no attempt to explain just why they might be happening. The viewer can't help but wonder how one of the characters knows how to build shotguns out of lead pipes, or why the zombies do an impromptu "Thriller"-esque dance number. But the sheer randomness of these events makes it more likely that they are part of an inside joke between the filmmakers and the audience. As a result, it totally works.
Altogether, the whole affair was a considerable success. The jokes were funny, the gore was where it needed to be, and the overwhelmingly tongue-in-cheekiness of it, made the film seem like one big conspiratorial wink. By all means, see this film if it's within your powers to do so.
Posted by matt at April 25, 2005 10:09 AM
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