Dance of the Dead

I rented this movie last night. Dance of the Dead is light but amusing, definitely the second funniest zombie movie I've seen, though not even a close second to Shaun of the Dead. One of my friends said that Dance of the Dead was like a cross between Freaks & Geeks and Shaun of the Dead.

As a zombie apocalypse movie goes, Dance of the Dead is somewhat restrained, containing the fall of civilization to a single town near an unnamed nuclear power plant facility that looks like Three Mile Island. But don't worry about the details, this movie is silly fun about nerds, punks and babes against zombies. The zombies are fairly standard, though inconsistently slow or fast as the scene requires. The FX is good enough, and a little heavy on the gore, but this is often offset by the humor, which starts out okay and then really kicks in when the action gets rolling. Still, there was one surprisingly nasty plot twist near the end, leading to some fairly disgusting gore.

This movie does add one new twist to the zombie mythology, which is that zombies love rock. And the music is pretty good in this movie, I actually wanted even more of it, kind of falling somewhere between punk and power pop.

Overall, I enjoyed Dance of the Dead. It isn't a particularly good movie, but it's good enough if you relax and keep your expectations down. I give it 3 stars on the AT scale.

Good to know. This film has been on my radar.

Off topic, I'd say my favorite zombie comedies are:

1) Shaun of the Dead
2) Dead Alive
3) Fido
4) Return of the Living Dead I
5) Return of the Living Dead II

Granted, the final two entries are way, way below the first three. Where would you place this as far as zombie comedies go?

Million Dollar Mimring wrote:

Good to know. This film has been on my radar.

Off topic, I'd say my favorite zombie comedies are:

1) Shaun of the Dead
2) Dead Alive
3) Fido
4) Return of the Living Dead I
5) Return of the Living Dead II

Granted, the final two entries are way, way below the first three. Where would you place this as far as zombie comedies go?

Of that list, I've only seen Shaun of the Dead and both Return of the Living Dead movies. Here is where I would rank Dance of the Dead:

1) Shaun of the Dead
2) Dance of the Dead
3) The Night of the Comet
4) Return of the Living Dead I
5) Return of the Living Dead II

However, I haven't seen the last three movies since the '80s, so my memories are sketchy. From what I remember, there is a big drop off in quality between Dance of the Dead and The Night of the Comet.

Dead Alive has one of my favorite zombie moments. A priest roundhouse kicks a zombie's head off and then shouts, "I kick ass for the Lord."

Peter Jackson is a genius.

Diary of the Dead has a dynamite-and-scythe-wielding mute Amish farmer...

PseudoIntellectual wrote:

Diary of the Dead has a dynamite-and-scythe-wielding mute Amish farmer...

Yeah but the film was such a piece of shit that not even the Amish farmer makes it a worthy view. SKIP IT!

I saw The Night of the Comet years ago and would love to get a copy. But it's still not available for Region 2 yet.
Definitely gets my recommendation.
(As does Shaun of the Dead, but then everyone knows how good it is already.)

I haven't seen Night of the Comet since the 80's. I remember enjoying it back then, but I'm guessing I'd think it was pretty lame now. Some movies are better left to nostalgia.

Diary of the Dead did indeed suck, despite the coolest character ever to be in a zombie movie (the aforementioned Amish guy). I cringe at the thought it was supposed to be a comedy so hopefully it was listed here by mistake.

Fido was a fun movie, but not something I'd ever watch again. Still if you haven't seen it I do recommend it. "Old people; don't trust them. They could turn on you at any moment."

Shaun of the Dead was an instant classic. I need to re-watch that again this year.