Movie Review: Dance of the Dead

On the night of the big high school prom, the dead rise to eat the living and the only people who can stop them are the losers who couldn't get dates to the dance.

A teen-oriented horror comedy, it's sort of a Shawn of the Dead meets Sixteen Candles. My first thoughts about this movie when I heard about it were "oh great, another freakin' zombie horror comedy" because there seem to be hundreds of these lately. But this is actually a pretty entertaining movie.

The comedy is pretty subtle really and not shoved down your throat, which is a plus. The horror part of the equation is not a real suspenseful type horror, but there's enough gore to keep horror hounds happy. What I found most effective about it is that they do a really good job of developing the characters, who are all pretty likable and believable and I was quick to notice that most of the people playing teenagers were actually teenagers, which is rare.

The film has a very b-level budget but they worked wonders with it. It looks slick. It's never hilarious but there's a fair amount of witty dialogue and slapstick violence.

There's also one really cool effect of zombie's blasting out of their graves that I thought rocked and wondered why nobody had tried it before. It looks really cool. Also, if you have you been looking for zombie frogs... look no more.

Yes, there are way too many zombie films out lately but this one holds it own pretty well. It's silly but fun and worth a watch.

6/10