David Anders stars as an American soldier killed in Iraq. But don’t worry, he turns up at best friend Chris Wylde’s door soon after. Actually, you probably should worry, because Anders has become a revenant, an undead creature that is a cross between a zombie and vampire, and feeds on blood. Meanwhile, Anders wasn’t gone long, but long enough for Wylde to have banged his girl, Louise Griffiths. Nice guy to have as a best bud. Our two dopey protagonists have come up with a solution to Anders’ bloodlust yet remorse at killing people; Acting as vigilantes, they take down the streets’ hoodlums and crooks, and Anders feeds off them.
Although there are blackly comedic elements of “An American Werewolf in London” present (not to mention a little of George Romero’s “Martin”), there is no doubt in my mind that this 2009 zombie comedy/horror from writer-director Kerry Prior (who has an FX background, including “The Lost Boys”) is an absolute rip-off of “Shaun of the Dead”. It muddies the waters by trying to pass itself off as something not quite zombie, but that’s just a cop-out. Anders is clearly a zombie, albeit an articulate one, and we all know it. Prior just doesn’t want to be called a plagiarist. The film even occasionally employs the same annoying and overused editing techniques to speed things up that was used in “Shaun” (and also “Hot Fuzz” for that matter). I mean, it’s blatant stealing, not just an homage. Sure, it’s set in America, not England, but it’s basically the same movie, only worse. And I didn’t like “Shaun”, either (“American Werewolf” wasn’t much better, either).
I like profanity as much as the next guy, but there’s more swearing in the opening five minutes of this than I’ve heard in ages. Worse still is the awful cinematography. It’s ugly and muted-looking, with too much emphasis on green/brown lighting, and at times it looks awfully blurry too. I’m not sure if that’s a stylistic choice or not, but if it is, it’s the wrong choice. The green/brown lighting becomes ridiculous in a scene set in a room with three white lights. Yes, white lights and the room looks green/brown. How does that work? Sorry, I know not everyone cares about this stuff but it’s become such a problem for me that it’s the first thing I notice. It makes everything look like Eastern Europe. Or a urinal. Does a zombie movie really need to look like a Michael Mann film? Real amateur stuff, if you ask me.
Although Chris Wylde is perfectly cast as the obnoxious best friend, the film isn’t funny, not even the scientologist hospital orderly made me laugh. The film takes forever to get going, with way too much time going by before anyone actually works out what kind of undead creature we’re dealing with here, despite it being completely obvious to the audience. About halfway through it turns into a zombie vigilante flick meets buddy movie, which isn’t much better, but at least it stops ripping off Edgar Wright. That should’ve been the whole movie, if you ask me.
OVERALL SUMMARY
Sorry, but this is just a lousy film, the only laughs coming near the end involving a disembodied head. Great head crush, though.
