It's Their Night to Come Alive! DANCE of the DEAD

Coach Keel: Little lady, you'll get the machete.
Gwen: But I don't know how to shoot a machete!

Zombie movies have never exactly been "A" rated movies. They don't play in the same leagues as Out of Africa, Brokeback Mountain and Titanic. But they are entertaining.

That is, if they are done right. From their rocky start with Night of the Living Dead, we have been willing to forgive low production values and unintentionally hilarious dialogue. But that does not mean they can't and don't ruin zombie movies. It is a genre that is difficult to get right.

Even more difficult to get right is the hybrid Zombie Movie Comedy. Shaun of the Dead is probably the best, Zombieland a recent well done one.

Well, here is another. Dance of the Dead follows the misadventures of a group of high school kids as they prepare for prom. There are always the misfits who don't go, the homicidal serial left behind oldest kid in school (Justin Welborn - Kyle Grubbin,) the Sci Fi club (Chandler Darby ... Steven, Randy McDowell ... Jules, Michael V. Mammoliti ... George, Mark Lynch ... Rod), the band that was not chosen to play the prom (Quarter Punk/Blair Redford ... Nash Rambler, Lucas Till ... Jensen, Hunter Pierce ... Dave The Drummer), and those who have problems; Gwen's (Carissa Capobianco)date got food poisoning from spinach, and Jimmy (Jared Kusnitz) managed to be such a jerk, his girlfriend Lindsey (Greyson Chadwick) dumped him to go with the responsible boy Mitch(J. Jacob Adelman), who has been after her for years.

For whatever reason they are not at the prom when the dead start rising. Lindsey and Mitch are at the overlook in the cemetery, with the lovely view of the nuclear power plant, the Sci Fi Club are also in the cemetery, doing a little ghost hunting. Quarter Punk are sulking and practicing in Nash's garage, consoling themselves with a massive amount of doobage. Jimmy is going stag to the prom, right after a pizza delivery, and Gwen is just going for a jog.

Then the dead rise, and it is a fight to the finish to see who can survive.

They get several things exactly right; the antisocial adapt better to the apocalypse. Kyle Grubber and Coach Keel (Mark Olivier) bloom as they let their pent up aggressions off the leash and beat the dead to redeath. Teenagers do not stop thinking the world revolves around them just because it is ending. And geeks thrive under pressure.

This is the bastard love child of the teen comedy, coming of age movie, and a zombie flick, and it manages to pull off both rather well. Many "Thrillomedies" strain to get their laughs, or they forget to make the threat scary as they reduce it to a clown. Here, the only thing they do is this; Zombies are fascinated by music, or more specifically by some of the feedback waves of the electric guitar. Quarter Punk figures that Zombies are a hive mind, and the feedback mimics or interferes with the signal. Whatever the case, they stop eating to listen to a serious jam. There are other funny things; zombie dissected frogs attack the Science Teacher, geek hierarchy squabbles, it's all very funny. But it rarely loses the tension and terror of the walking dead.

And yet, while they are killing the zombies, and trying to save the prom, they still have time to sort through their teenage angst. Like I said a coming of age movie as well, with a nice dash of romance.

This movie was made in the wilds of Atlanta Georgia. Greg Bishop is a real up and comer in the indie film circuit. When he couldn't get the funding to make this movie, he took the $15,000 he won for his short Voodoo, and made The Other Side to earn the money. It is hailed as great. So is this film.