Dance of the Dead (2008)

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Dance of the Dead starts as the students & teachers of Cosa prepare for the big end of year prom, everyone who's anybody will be going which means the likes of the geeks, punks & no hoper's have to find something else to do. A bunch of sci-fi geeks head down to the local cemetery & soon discover the dead rising from their graves hungry for human flesh, they try to survive as best they can with what weapons they find & encounter various other people also trying to survive the zombie outbreak. The assorted oddball group decide to stick together & warn everyone at the prom but when they get there they find out that zombies beat them to it & have already killed & eaten most of the guests, it's then that they come up with a plan to destroy all the zombies & save the world...Edited, produced & directed by Gregg Bishop this very light hearted tongue in cheek zombie horror comedy (a Zom Com?) offers a decent enough way to pass 80 odd minutes but it's nothing amazing or as clever as it tries to be. The script places far more emphasis on the comedy & self referential mickey taking than the actual horror aspects, I think the main inspiration for Dance of the Dead was The Return of the Living Dead (1985) & even more so it's sequel Return of the Living Dead Part II (1988) which large parts of the main story here are taken from but Dance of the Dead doesn't have quite the right mix of humour & horror & I personally didn't think it was that funny either. The humour is very hit & miss, fans of 80's horror & the genre in particular will get more from Dance of the Dead than most I would think. At only 80 odd minutes long Dance of the Dead is pretty short & moves along at a very quick pace but all of the character's are deliberate clichés that are likable enough I suppose & there's not much of a story here, there's some silly ideas as well like the zombies who stop when they hear (awful) rock music. So it has it moments, it's never boring & there's s a few amusing one liners, some decent gore & it's fun for the majority of it's duration.There's some gore but none of it is lingering or sadistic, it's more played for laughs & is fleeting. There's some flesh eating, some severed limbs, a decapitated head or two, various gory gunshot wounds & a similar sequence as in Return of the Living Dead Part II where a zombies legs walk around after it's upper bodies is ripped off. Not to be confused with the awful Masters of Horror episode Dance of the Dead (2006) from the first season directed by Tobe Hooper. Since the film goes for laughs there's not much in the way of suspense or scares on show.Probably shot on a low budget the production values are good & it's well made, it doesn't look cheap & has good special effects as well. The acting is alright, I can't say I recognised any of the faces on show but they do a decent enough job.Dance of the Dead is a perfectly likable & watchable zombie horror comedy with far more emphasis on the comedy than the horror. I thought it was pretty good overall but many of the jokes & gags aren't that funny, at least it's short.

Hasn't this prom-night zombie massacre shtick already been done in "Cabin Fever 2"? Nevermind. Horror films are rarely about originality; in some ways, it's almost a badge of honour among horror directors to rip each other off.The problem with this zombie comedy is that it wants to have its cake and eat it too: wants both the laughs and for us to care for these cardboard stereotypes. I am a firm believer in the Jerry Seinfeld philosophy, and that's when you do comedy, do it all-out, 100%, with no sentimental BS whatsoever. Unfortunately, DOTD has such moments too, believe it or not, just like some cheesy US sitcom (won't mention any names "Friends", "The Bill Cosby Show"), which is fascinating in a way. Cringe-worthy, because so idiotic, but fascinating. Fascinating that someone would even try it in a goofy teen zombie flick.The first 15 minutes serve to establish the various high-school stereotypes that we have all grown to hate so much - thanks to American movies and television. Most of the gags suck at this point, but not all. The gags do in fact get worse when the zombapocalypse commences, but the abundance of action scenes covers up for the dozens of lame one-liners and seen-them-before sight gags. The movie is fluff, but it's watchable fluff. It isn't a bad movie when everything is said and done. It might even be considered a masterpiece to the occasional viewer – provided he/she is no older than 15, has never seen a horror comedy before, and doesn't have an IQ higher than 100.I had thought that "The Simpsons" (and others) had already squeezed out the last drop of juice from the stale power-plants-cause-mutation/disease/zombies mega-cliché, but apparently not everyone on this planet agrees with me, so here's DOTD doing the same thing, for the gazillionth time. I am not accusing the writer of being left-wing, just of being predictable and lame. Not bad, the notion that zombies enjoy crappy pop-punk/baby-punk, and that it soothes them. After all, isn't every Green Day fan a bit of a zombie?

On the day of the Hawaiian Hula Prom, the high-school students are excited with the party. The immature pizza-boy Jimmy Dunn (Jared Kusnitz) has an argument with his girlfriend Lindsey (Greyson Chadwick), who is the vice-president of the student council and wants to wear a corsage, and she calls off their date. The outcast Steven (Chandler Darby), who is one of the members of the mocked Sci-Fi Club, invites the cheerleader Gwen (Carissa Capobianco) to go to the prom with him, but she prefers to invite the leader of the band Quarter Punks Nash Rambler (Blair Redford) to have a date with her, but he rejects her invitation. During the night, Lindsey dates the snobbish Mitch Cutter (Jeff Adelman), who is the president of the student council, and he heads his car to the local cemetery nearby a power plant to make out with Lindsey. Meanwhile the members of the Sci-Fi Club – the president Jules Reiner (Randy McDowell), Steven, George (Michael V. Mammoliti) and Rod (Mark Lynch) – decide to spend the night investigating the cemetery using a MIT device that Jules borrowed from his brother. Out of the blue, Rod is attacked by a zombie and the trio of survivors runs away from a legion of living dead. Meanwhile, Mitch is beheaded by a living dead and Lindsey drives his car to escape of zombies. She rescues Jules, Steven and George and break in the funeral house. Meanwhile, Jimmy is delivering a pizza and is attacked by the dead. He flees and sooner he meets the badass Kyle Grubbin (Justin Welborn) and Gwen that is jogging on the street. The Quarter Punks is rehearsing in Nash's garage and they discover that the zombies like their music. The three groups team-up under the leadership of Coach Keel (Mark Oliver) and together they decide to help the teenagers in the prom. But it may be too late."Dance of the Dead" is an entertaining and gore horror comedy with a huge potential of cult-movie. The plot is not original, actually it is a combination of "Carrie" and "Night of the Living Dead", but the story is hilarious and I laughed a lot. The special effects are another plus of this delightful film. The resemblance of Greyson Chadwick with the sweet Julianne Moore is impressive. I really enjoyed this funny film and laughed a lot. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): Not Available

dance of the dead is a fairly low budget zom-com with no widely known actors and there is virtually no media coverage for it either. needless to say it is well worth seeing for zombie or comedy fans.the acting is overall fairly good. the cast does a good job of filling their roles and for the most part you care about what happens to them. look out for the cool high school bully and the gym coach. 7/10 the dialogue is a little hit and miss. sometimes the characters come out with cringe worthy lines or just things that are completely unconvincing and silly at the time or just cliché. other times characters come out with some funny and appropriate lines such as the coach with "ill have this place wired like a crack-head drinking' a red bull". id say the dialogue is half cheesy half decent/funny/cool. 5/10the special effects are top notch. the sets, makeup, gore and general effects are all really good for this kind of movie and there isn't a whole lot to complain about. towards the end there is some pretty nice head squashing/crushing/splitting etc. 8/10 the camera-work and editing is also good with little to complain about. you can tell here and there that its a low budget film from hand-held movements, one too many premature cuts to black, etc. 7/10 the pacing is pretty good throughout, the film takes around half an hour to get going before the zombie action picks up but from then on, there's always something to keep you interested as the film develops. 7/10 overall the the effects, the acting, pacing, camera-work, and dialogue come together to make a far above average b movie zom-com. it isn't quite on par with shaun of the dead, but it isn't too far off. think 'teen shaun of the dead with a lower budget centered around a high school prom' and uve got dance of the dead.7/10