Horror Movie Review: Dance of the Dead (2008)

Years ago, I would jokingly say in my reviews that the most terrifying three words in horror were ‘British found footage’. Terrifying on their own but put them together & it would be like opening the Ark of the Covenant.

Well, no more. After an absolute spate of cookie cutter bullshit I can now tell you that the true three most terrifying words in horror are ‘zombie horror comedy’. Even reading it will likely make your guts tremble & your lip quiver.

Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, Night of the Living Dorks, Cockneys vs Zombies, Dead Snow, Pro Wrestlers vs Zombies, Doghouse, Attack of the Lederhosen Zombies etc.

All movies treading the same shallow pool thinking they have created something hilarious all while using the horror whipping boys that are zombies. Remember when zombies were scary? Modern horror doesn’t!

Dance of the Dead is a zombie horror comedy. A horror comedy that is not funny in the slightest & just adds the extra bit of dirt on top of the grave that is zombies in horror. Is it a bad movie? Hell no. The problem lies in just how average it is. Just how much it threads the line taking no risks & offering nothing original at all.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before…

A group of teenage outcasts have to stop a zombie apocalypse on the night of the school prom. The dead are rising from a local cemetery & the nearby power plant seems to be to blame. Will they manage to save the day & get dates for the prom!?

Will you care? Well, maybe as these characters are fairly well developed even if they’ve been done to death in zombie horror already. Nerds from the Sci-Fi club, goths that are in a rock band, the badass with a heart of gold…no surprises here.

The comedy relies solely on their interactions & unsurprisingly it falls extremely flat. I don’t think I even smiled at some of the jokes here. However, some of the characters are interesting to watch & the acting is solid.

The film doesn’t wait around to reveal the zombies which is a good thing. Now, as low budget as this is, props to the effects team. They must have stretched the budget to breaking point as a lot of the make-up looks great. Others not so much though & it’s just a pity that these zombies are so hit & miss. On the one hand, we get these amazingly cool looking scenes of them bursting out of coffins.

Then on the other hand, they shuffle about distracted by lame rock music. They’re not scary even when trying to reference the greatest zombie movie ever & this very website’s title. It does warm my bitter heart to hear any zombie utter the ‘brrraaains’ word though.

If you’d never seen a zombie horror comedy before then chances are Dance of the Dead will be something you’d enjoy. For everyone else though it’s an average re-thread of better zombie comedies.