OK, here a low budget film that
could possibly be described as a black comedy were the ending, well, not so
black. We found it on io9,
where they explain "[writers & directors] Greg Hanson and Casey Regan channel an older B-movie aesthetic for
their short horror film Meat Me in Plainville. After all the livestock in
America die off, cannibalism becomes legal with unexpected consequences. Despite
being apparently set in the 'future' year 1994, Meat Me in Plainville debuted in
2012 at the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival.* It takes its conceit
and turns it into something akin to a zombie movie where anyone could be a
flesh-craving monster."
OK, so let's place the film in an alternative reality
where, well, the government can't be trusted. (Wait! Isn't that our reality,
too?)
The acting is variable, the story effective and well thought-out, the
ending an open and bleak downer. We liked it, and so will you. Enjoy.
A low-budget film that gets an A for
effort, Zombie Honeymoon is not for everyone. One thing for sure, steer clear
if you think that, due to the film's slightly ridiculous title, what you have
in your hands is some sort of zomedy like, dunno, Fido(2006), Zombieland(2009), Dead
& Breakfast (2004), Idle
Hands (1999), Dead
Snow (2009), the sorely underrated Dance
of the Dead (2008), the sorely overrated Doghouse
(2009), or even Zombeavers(2014).
True, there are few dryly humorous
exchanges and situations — our biggest laugh was at the great outfit worn by
the travel agent Phyllis Catalano (Maria Iadonisi), which once upon a time (the
80s) was LA high style — but Zombie Honeymoon is not first and foremost a
comedy. And if you're expecting one, the movie will sorely disappoint you and
you could well fall asleep while watching it (as, indeed, did one fellow
watching the movie with us).
So what is Zombie Honeymoon? Like, duh!
It's a zombie flick! Independently made, of course. And, on a plot level, it's
fairly easy: on their honeymoon, a young couple is attacked by a zombie and as
the vegetarian husband Danny (Graham Sibley of Robotropolis [2011 / trailer]) slowly
transforms into a gut-muncher, the concerned and loving wife Denise (Tracy
Coogan of Dark Woods [2010 / trailer) has to come
to terms with the changes in her husband.
Within this simple conceit, director David Gebroe (who
also wrote the flick) touches upon a variety of themes, including that of how
(to quote Robert Burns)
"the best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang oft aglay". (Really: if
you have dreams of one day surfing in Portugal, of getting stoned alongside a
canal in Amsterdam, eating a pizza in Napoli, or whatever, do it now 'cause you
really could be dead tomorrow. [A side note: considering how many people we
know who have died this year, we concur heartily with this concept — which is
also why about this time next year we'll already be living on Mallorca.])
Another theme present is that which is
echoed by the closing song of the movie, a cover version of Tammy Wynette's
classic love song Standby
Your Man: to what extent do you stick with your man when you love him?
Personally, we are of the opinion that, in Zombie Honeymoon, Denise sticks to
her man way too long — as did most of the women you read about if you ever
decide to look up "couples
who kill" or read Carol Anne Davis's already out-of-date book of the
same name. If you get down to it, Danny might not be the one doing the killing
— at least not most of the time — but her compliance to the act, her decision
to stand by her man, her inability to overcome her love for her husband, also
plays a huge role in the eventual death of multitudes of people, including some
good friends.
In the
end, Denise might be way better looking than, say, Myra Hindley,
but her hands are just as bloody with death as Myra's and/or Danny's. (Literally:
she not only cleans a blood-smeared bathroom before guests arrive, but she
plays a hand in the killing of the travel agent). Naw, sorry, when it comes to
standing by your man (or, as the case could possibly be, woman), our sympathies
definitely didn't lie with Denise when we caught this flick. Understanding her
would be like siding with the beaten women who stays with the wife-beating
man — and we can't do that. Hello: things won't
and don't get better.
True purists of zombie lore, be it of the
quick or the slow, might take some umbrage at the liberties taken in Zombie
Honeymoon. The infection, for example, is not "death = quick
transformation" but rather a slow conversion, and the infection is not
transmitted through body fluids (like spit and sperm) but, as in the
"demonic zombie" flicks Demons I
(1985 / trailer) and II
(1986 / trailer),
through zombie-upchucked bile. Others, like us, might find the relatively
groovy surfadelic music by the MelTones totally incongruent to most of the
scenes in which it is used, regardless of how good it might be.
Not from Zombie Honeymoon, but by The MelTones —
Return of the Surfin' Headhunters:
We had a few other bones about the movie,
but before we slag off too much, it must be said that if the movie works at all
it is because of the acting. True, the opening scenes are a bit clumsy, but as
the film progresses Tracy Coogan does as amazing job portraying the
emotionally-torn Denise, while Graham Sibley as the slowly zombifying Danny, in
turn, also manages to do a good job at remaining likeable as the movie
progresses. His part, however, never demands an as convincing exploration of
emotional depths as does Coogan's; one could easily image her going on to
bigger and better things, were Zombie Honeymoon not already 12 years old.
But the good acting aside, Zombie Honeymoon
is, in our humble opinion, a movie destined to be forgotten and probably never
rediscovered.
