Dead and Deader, dir. Patrick Dinhut (2006)

NIKKI says: Advertised as a Shaun of the Dead-like zombie comedy spoof, we thought this one might be just our cup of tea. And it starred Dean Cain to boot. How wrong we were. Minutes in and we realised we'd been gypped by smooth marketing yet again. (Although we both should have known better -- Dean Cain?)

This movie was clearly made by fans of zombie films, and try as they might to replicate the cleverness of a Shaun or even a Severance, they failed mightily. Their hearts were firmly on their sleeves here and they drilled home their fandom in terribly unsubtle ways, revealing themselves as fanboys more than fans. Conversations about George Romero, references to classic '70s cop films, swipes at Michael Bay -- it was just so darn cringe-y.

The idea was cute, though -- a zombie is the only one who can save the town from ... zombies! Dean Cain played the dead hero, which, when you examine it, doesn't make all that much sense. This was exactly as we should have expected -- cheap, silly, and not nearly as clever as it wanted to be. Lightning strikes but once, and it hit Shaun.

1.5/5

STEVE says: This one was my fault. Not its existence, but the fact that we watched it. See, we were all set to watch something called Gruesome, but after checking out the trailer, decided to give it amiss. Looked like it was taking itself too seriously for such a low-budget movie. (Note to up and coming low-budget horror movie makers: Watch the first Evil Dead movie and take copious notes.) So we watched the trailer for Dead and Deader and I thought it looked okay. Not good, mind you, but maybe kind of fun. Definitely not serious by any stretch. Well, we dodged one bullet, it seems, only to jump into the path of another.

Sure, it started off with a clever premise, but it went downhill before we even got to the second act. And I'm sorry, a clever premise doesn't make a good movie - nor does a clever script, necessarily, but it helps. And this script relied too heavily on pop culture references to even hope be clever. (Note to up and coming Zombie movie makers: Stop referencing Dawn of the Dead. Original or remake.)

If there's an upside to this movie - if - it's Guy Torry's character Judson. He was supposed to be the comic relief guy, I guess, but in a movie that was already trying too hard to be a comedy anyway, he was just a welcome relief from the bad film school banter Dean Cain and Susan Ward were throwing back and forth.

(Note to self: STOP watching shit like this. You deserve better.)

1.5/5