Friday Night Double Feature: They Might Be Zombies

Zombies are probably one of the most horrific ideas ever conceived. Think about it: the living dead. All those bodies out there rising up and wanting to feast on one thing: human flesh. Nothing can really stop them. If you’re lucky you get classic, slow moving zombies that you can at least run away from. But eventually even the numbers start working against you in that situation.

But who says zombies always have to be serious? There are quite a few movies out there who have taken a more comical stance on the zombie menace, whether intentionally or not. After all, you can just run away from the slow ones, and without brain functions it’s not as if you can’t confuse them easily. I mean, have you ever tried to match wits with a zombie? Easy, really.

Let me admit up front, I was sorely tempted to include Weekend At Bernie’s in this week’s Double Feature. I know Bernie isn’t exactly the walking dead, but any corpse that can cause enough problems for his friends to generate two movies might have some undead functions going on, regardless of whether the plot specifically addresses it. For everyone’s sake, I left that movie for some other time. Hopefully never.

So here are a few zombie movies that might make you cringe, but are more likely to make you laugh. The humor may not always be on purpose, but they show the living dead can have senses of humor too:

Shaun of the Dead

Let’s start with the movie that is intentionally funny. I loved Shaun of the Dead because it delivered exactly what it promised: a romantic comedy, with zombies. The zombie plague that takes place isn’t Shaun’s primary issue. It’s just a real inconvenience as he tries to patch up his relationship with the lovely Elizabeth and with his own mother and step-father. I love how the story teases the presence of zombies, much like classic movies would, and then when they finally arrive it cuts completely and totally loose. The chemistry between Simon Pegg and Nick Frost makes this a great buddy movie on top of being a good romantic comedy and completely set up the idea of the pair doing another movie together (Hot Fuzz hits DVD next week!). As always, an appearance by Bill Nighy is a beautiful thing. The movie also wins “Best Use of a Queen Song” in my mind – the bar room brawl set to “Don’t Stop Me Now” is well choreographed, suspenseful, and ends in a heck of a bang. While you’re watching, see how many homages to other zombie movies you can count.

Night of the Comet

Now for the zombie movie that’s less intentionally funny. Night of the Comet is one of those cliché ‘80s movies that features hot babes in skin tight clothing and leg warmers. They just happen to be the last two people on Earth… or at least they think they are. What would you do if you woke up and all life as you know it had turned into dust? These girls take over a radio station, go shopping, you know, the usual. Then it turns out not everyone is quite as dead as they shold be. Okay, Catherine Mary Stewart and Kelli Maroney aren’t exactly Shakespearean actors in their Valley girl roles (nor is Robert Beltran, the man who would go on to “Star Trek: Voyager” fame), but then again, this isn’t Shakespeare. It’s a freakin’ zombie movie. Frankly, I’m more a fan of the first part of the movie, as the girls wander around the empty world and start fulfilling their dreams (like shopping) than the latter half that starts trying to get a little scientific. If you think back to the classics, we never care how the zombies arrive, just that they do. For chintzy ‘80s zombie action, this is definitely one guilty pleasure, but undoubtedly you’ll still find yourself laughing almost as much as you did at Shaun of the Dead.

Other humorous zombie plagues: Fido, Night of the Living Dorks, Dead Alive, Boy Eats Girl

Enjoy our Double Feature suggestions? and maybe we’ll use them in a future column.