Dead and Breakfast
****
DVD
Directed by
Matthew Leutwyler
Written by
Matthew Leutwyler
Cast
Diedrich Bader
David Carradine
Portia De Rossi
Gina Phillips
R
88 mins
The zombie movie, ladies and gentlemen. There have been HORDES of
them coming out lately--everything from the truly lousy ones like "The
Wickeds" to the slam-bang action ones like "Dead Meat". George Romero
actually came back to the theatres to give us "Land of the Dead," with
mixed results. And the newest horror genre, the zombie comedy, was born.
Much to the delight of horror fans everywhere.
It kicked off with "Shaun of the Dead," and was quickly followed up
with movies like "Snow Day, Bloody Snow Day," "Hide and Creep," and
now, "Dead and Breakfast."
They bear a lot of the same elements. Romero physics rule the
day--destroy the brain and you destroy the body. Lots of siegeworks are
laid--buildings are boarded up and barricaded as a way to defend
against the undead hordes.
And as if that weren't enough, they pack in the jokes. Tons of
jokes. All manner of funny bits, from slapstick to cerebral. If you
don't laugh at least once during the proceedings, check your pulse--you
just may be a zombie yourself!
So what we have here is a road trip gone wrong, and the besieged bed
and breakfast the six friends that went on the road trip find
themselves in, resting for the evening. Now, naturally, if you're on a
road trip with friends in a horror movie, something is going to go
catastrophically wrong. And if that something goes wrong in the state
of Texas, you know it'll go very wrong in a very big way.
Naturally, it does. The bed and breakfast is besieged by a legion of
the walking dead. Which is pretty much why they called it "Dead and
Breakfast."
The opening menu is surprisingly clever. Watch that swirling
background (shades of Hitchcock!) and tell me you're not even vaguely
impressed.
And I positively love the first couple of minutes' comic book style
opening credit roll. The rockabilly song going on in the background is
the perfect compliment, and I'm just very impressed.
The country song at the five minute forty second mark is too funny
for words. I mean it, folks...this is FUNNY. Funny is a great term to
describe "Dead and Breakfast"--adding Diedrich Bader to the cast was an
excellent idea for the comedy, and the creepy quotient gets ramped up
handily thanks to David Carradine.
But it gets better! Sixteen minutes and forty eight seconds features
one of the best jokes in the entire movie--the "Find The Corpse"
sequence. The morbid hilarity is underscored by the soundtrack, and for
being so horribly messy, it's just really, really funny.
You know what? If I tried to chronicle every single laugh-out-loud
funny moment in "Dead and Breakfast," I'd be here for days describing
this to you. You'd be sitting here reading a small novel about all the
comedy. Suffice it to say there are literally tons of comedic gems
sitting in "Dead and Breakfast," and that's long before the zombies
even show up.
And when the zombies first start to crop up, the comedy takes a back
seat. Oh, it's still there, but it's subdued in favor of a whole bunch
of really vicious action scenes and plenty of gore.
Forty eight minutes fifty five seconds proves that "Dead and
Breakfast" was really paying attention during "Night of the Living
Dead" as they take alarmingly similar measures to board up the bed and
breakfast. The homemade shotguns are just incredibly brilliant pieces
of improvised weaponry.
And the song at one hour and fifty five seconds...oh man. The comedy
is back with a vengeance as the zombies mount a DANCE NUMBER.
The ending is stuffed to the gills with action sequences, the
occasional joke, and a few nifty surprises. Including a recapping music
video during the final credit roll.
The special features include commentary tracks, deleted and extended
scenes, a blooper reel (which is just a hoot in a movie like this),
additional music, a poster and still gallery, plus trailers for "Dead
and Breakfast", "Man With The Screaming Brain", "All Souls Day", and
"It Waits".
All in all, "Dead and Breakfast" is a hoot. Though there will be
obvious comparisons between it and "Shaun of the Dead", these
comparisons are cosmetic at best. "Dead and Breakfast" is a laugh riot
with lots of action and plenty of gore to be had. If you're not
laughing, folks, check your pulse.
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