A
gravedigger (James Jarrett) is doing his
job at the graveyard but some bodies are
trying to rise from the grave and he
tries his best to prevent them while a
nuclear power plant is nearby causing the
bodies to rise.
Meanwhile at a nearby highschool a prom
is about to happen and some outsiders
can't seem to find a date for their prom
but however, one of them named Jimmy
(Jared Kuznitz) might get lucky so he
tries to go but is called in to work to
deliver a pizza so he tries to make it as
quick as he can.
Meanwhile, some other teens bring a
camera of their own to videotape their
own documentary at the grave and then
discovers that the dead are jumping out
of their grave and attacking by eating
the living.
Some escape and Jimmy discovers the
residents he delivered the pizza to
aren't alive themselves so he tries to
flee for his life too and runs into his
bully named Kyle Grubbin (Justin Welborn)
as they battle off the zombie's and then
gets together with the other survivors
that encountered this incident at the
graveyard.
Suddenly Kyle gets bitten by a zombie and
painfully dies. Next he becomes one of
them and tries to attack but gets shot in
the head.
The rest try to save their own prom with
the aid of their coach teacher Keel (Mark
Oliver) by creating a bunch of weapons
but they discover that everyone there has
turned into zombie's as well so they try
to terminate them all before they are
next.
There's
plenty of slapstick and in great taste too.
There's some nice shots on a
gravedigger doing his duties at the
graveyard and then good shots on a hand
rising from the ground with him cutting
it off along with nice shots on him
listening to the ground. Plus there's a
good distant shot on the graveyard
showing the power plants.
We spot a good scene between Frank Hammond in a
science class being a prick
to some of his students which looked
goofily well done.
We have another slapstick moment with
Principal
Castlemoody acting
nervous with a punk kid Kyle Grubbin in a detention
centre.
There's a good angle and camera circling
around Jimmy and Coach Keel scolding
him and telling him to do some pushups.
There's a cheesy moment between Lindsey and her boyfriend Mitch making out in their
car while some other kids are exploring a mortuary with their
camcorder which almost looks like a Blair
Witch type of direction and have
a great shot on a zombie grabbing one of
them.
We have great shots on corpses jumping
out of their graves into the air and
chasing after others as it looks very
action paced.
We have a nice approach by a zombie
mom when she answers the door when Jimmy tries to deliver a pizza and she
tries to bite him with him reacting
strangely to her actions and trying to
talk to her and then the zombie dad and a zombie daughter also appraching and
trying to attack which was a great
scene too with some suspense and
shocks.
There's a good shot on a car turned over
with a dead body exposed while Jimmy is trying to figure out what is going on
along with a good discussion between him
and Kyle have an aggressive
discussion next to the turned over car.
We spot a good shot on Frank in his class in the dark and a dead frog
leaping at him and then a nice shot on him as a zombie opening his
class door.
There's a nice moment with Kyle acting like a hero in a big mortuary
trying to protect everyone with
compliments by the other people
towards him giving it a good touch.
There's a great scene that involved Keel leading some of the teens into his
garage to make weapons since there were
many perfect takes on what they were
doing.
We have some good takes on Keel shooting his rifle against the
zombie's.
We spot many good shots on
zombie's at the prom eating a body or
acting like they're enjoying the prom in
a living dead kind of way.
There's also a nice scene between Jimmy and Lindsey being cornered in
the prom by the zombie's and
thensome of the teens killing the zombie's whom
were once the band and playing a song
with the zombie's stopping and then
couple dancing giving it a good comedic
feel to it along with both Jimmy and Lindsey couple dancing
themselves.
We have a good upsetting reaction by Gwen in a washroom towards Steven about being bit by a zombie
wanting him to be with her and then later
on a good camera shot on her zombie eyes
and then lunging at him and biting his
tongue.
Later on we have a good shot on Steven rising up as a zombie and then the two of
them making out and biting one another.
There's a nice battle sequence between Jimmy and Frank between zombie
teacher and alive student which was very
watchable and fun.
Bottom line is that Shaun
of the Dead became a huge
success spoofing George A. Romero flikcs and inspired many others to do so
as well and this is one of them. Instead
it's about a highschool with your
everyday teens clowning around or asking
for a date as well as the main school
bully too.
It was done in perfect taste too with
fast paced action with the zombie's not
slowly walking but running very fast with
high energy just like in the Dawn
of the Dead remake.
There's good effects with plenty of
slapstick dark comedy and brought the
seriousness to the zombie attacks too
proving that this film is very well a
horror too.
I found this to be a spoof on the Romero flicks as well as a touch of Return
of the Living Dead elements too.
The film isn't exactly mainstream but it
is growing to be quite popular for the
fans who love these types of zombie
flicks with the zany comedy involved too.
Lots of fun touches throughout the film
and well done.
The actors were mainly
local from their area of Georgia but do a
great job with their comedic and serious
performances.
Jared Kuznitz (Jimmy) played a good dopey
type of a teen in the film and knew how
to deliver his lines and battling actions
too.
Greyson Chadwick (Lindsey) also does a fine
job and is quite funny with her role
saying she's the school president making
out she knows best and acting like a
stuffed shirt a bit.
Chandler Darby (Steven) portrayed a good
senistive and shy type in the film which
came across well too making his role
believeable as well to reacting to being in pain while having his tongue being bitten.
Justin Welborn (Kyle Grubbin) was one of the best
actors in the film playing a goofy type
school bully with his excellent timing on
what he portrayed and can see him doing
other projects too. He also shows alot of
terrific energy with his intensity and
fighting sequences too. He does well with
his aggressive actions and does very well with his battle scene's
against the featured extra's who played
zombie's too. We have a great painful reaction with him after being bit on the neck
and then weakly apologising to everyone
on how he treated them at school. Then
there's a great rising reaction on him
and quickly trying to attack which almost
makes you jump.
I'd have to say the best actor is Mark
Oliver (Coach Keel) whom I remembered playing a
tough teen in Sleepaway Camp 3:
Teenage Wasteland and even found
he could go places with his performance
in that one but sadly locals like him
don't get alot of luck having bigger
roles with other projects but he had the
main supporting role playing one of the
adults and this time he's a tough coach
teacher and it was a big stretch showing
a different character alltogether which
he does extremely well proving to be a
versatile actor. He also does well with
his gunfighting battles against the
zombie's too bringing wit and plenty of
charisma. I found this film to be his big
break and can see him now getting bigger
roles in future gigs since this one is
better known.
Jonathan Spencer (Frank Hammond) seemed to be a
comedic character actor as well playing a
dickhead science teacher as he stood out
very well with his part in it.
We also have a part by James Jarrett (Gravedigger) whom is kookie since we
need someone like this for a living dead
type of film bringing his part very clear
to the picture.
A hand is chopped
off from rising in the ground
There's body parts in a container
Heads are ripped off
Arms are torn off
Heads blown off
Brutal stabbings
Zombie's eating body parts
Guts being torn open
A tongue is bitten off
Two zombie's bite one another
Plenty of blood
Kristopher Carter is the composer in which he is marvellous
at doing. Spot some good metallic and
rumbling sounds with the dead rising.
There's lots of deep classical playing
for the film too with the suspenseful
horn and violin music too giving it that
good mainstream horror feel to the film.
Gravedigger:
Ah hell!
Frank
Hammond: Jimmy, quit acting like an
idiot and dissect your frog!
Kwiki
Mart Attendant: Hey, no eating in
store!
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