We have a winner!A movie with zombies starring a bunch of geeks. This movie will be a classic in the future.
All you need to know about the plot is that it's prom night and there are zombies lurking about. Put the two together and you have Dance of the Dead.
There are several factors that make this an instant classic.
One of the things that stand out the most are the characters. Unlike other horror movies that hire 20 to 30-something year olds who look or act nothing like teens, in DotD you really get a genuine feeling that these are teenagers, both from their mannerisms and their dialogue. Also, unlike shitfests such as Joy Ride 2 the characters don't need to declare what kind of categories they fall into (ie. that emo-punk wuss in JR2). Instead, you can tell that a character is more emotional by the things he says and the things he does.
The characters are well defined. Sure they are a bunch of highschool stereotypes, but they really do it well. There are science nerds, geeks, athletes, rockers, and so forth. What makes the movie fun is that you really get a feel for these guys as they go through their adventure with zombies. The zaniest character would have to be the seemingly ex-military gym teacher. He seems like an asshole at first, but when he re-emerges later on, he explodes back on to the screen with a burst of awesomeness.
A big plus to the movie is that the filmmakers understood that it was low-budget, so they had fun with it. It has a good balance of seriousness as well as campiness.
The effects are on par with what you'd expect from a DTV movie. I think my favourite effect in it was in a scene where a bunch of the characters are trying to get away from the graveyard, and as they're running, zombies explode out of their graves, fly right on to their feet, and start running after our heroes. It's a pretty awesome scene despite my hate for fast zombies (I'm an old school zombie fan, I love the slow ones).
The last thing that I will mention is that this is the third zombie movie I've seen with some zombie love in it. By zombie love I mean, a man zombie and a woman zombie show their affections to each other. I shant spoil what led to it, but it filled me with giddiness to see zombies embrace.
Anyhow, like I said, we have a winner. This movie rules on multiple levels. This is definitely a fun one to watch with a bunch of friends on Halloween. Peace out geeks.
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