CIFF 2005 REVIEW NIGHT OF THE LIVING DORKS

The description in my programming guide said that NOTLD was a teen zom-com that combined the best of eighties era John Hughes and zombie era Peter Jackson. Talk about hyperbole. A few laughs, and slightly inventive zombie moments hardly elevate this tired sex obsessed teen comedy to the level of Drop Dead Fred much less Sixteen Candles or Dead Alive. Think way too tasteful Bad Taste or Breakfast Club with My Dinner with Andre energy. Can I make it any plainer? Those looking for the next Shaun of the Dead can keep looking. Or better yet go rent Dead and Breakfast, which isn’t all that great but is still plenty better than this.

A voodoo experiment goes wrong and three high school buddies bear the brunt, waking up as zombies after a car crash. At first their zombie powers are great and of course they have movies to show them the ropes. They rule the party scene only to come head to head with the diet issue. Should I have sex with this girl or eat her? Then there’s that pesky manhood which just keeps falling off. Oh well, that’s why God made staple guns! Believe me it sounds funnier than it is.

This movie relies on being dumb when it’s central situation could have been the stuff of zom-com legend. I not only wouldn’t waste my time seeing Night of the Living Dorks again I wouldn’t walk across the street to shoot the film’s zombies in the head. Surprisingly little gore is in this film compared to it’s brethren. A few sight gags do not a zombie film make.

Did I like anything about this film? Yes. Thomas Schmieder brings a sick glee to his stint as the undead Konrad one of the three losers. Think Bill Gates in high school if he were a zombie. Did I like anything else? No. Not really. Thanks guys for making the first truly forgettable zom-com of the new millennium.