As we all know, the greatest time to be alive, according to boomer filmmakers in the 80’s, was the 50’s. And what better way to connect the decades, if you don’t have access to a time-travelling DeLorean, than to make a zombie movie in which the undead are frozen in the 50’s and then accidentally unfrozen in the 80’s so they can wreak havoc at a university campus? And then have a gumshoe from the 40’s be the lead investigator? Pretty fun, right?
Well, no. This is pretty dire. Written and directed by Fred Dekker (his debut) who followed it up with The Monster Squad (1987). Dekker (no relation to Jack) really wants to include everything from popular culture he’s ever been interested in, from old cars and 50’s pop songs to aliens, frats and sororities. It’s a zombie movie, but also a slasher; it’s a space invaders movie but also a riff on every generic B-movie of the 50’s; it’s a raunchy teen movie but also a noir pastiche… you get it. It’s too much, and almost none of it works. Terrible, annoying actors. Bad oneliners. Awful writing, wannabe-meta clever lines like, ”what is this, a homicide or a bad B-movie?” (the answer is YES!). All the characters are named after famous horror directors, because of course they are. Truly embarrassing. Ten-year-old me would have loved it.
You also get the impression that it was very much designed to become a cult film — but it tries way too hard to achieve this, it’s too self-aware. I do like the burn-it-all-down ending. Nice Dick Miller cameo too. Dr. Runtime approved (90 mins).
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