This now crops up on various lists of best Christmas movie, and that, and the promise that it's a comedy, tricked me into having us watch this. Bad mistake. While it has a mostly charming cast of unknowns, and the songs are surprisingly catchy, it is (a) not funny and (b) actively anti-comedic. Like Shaun of the Dead, the supposed apogee of the Zombie Horror-Comedy genre (actually, it's One Cut of the Dead) it will insist on doing that most unforgivable thing that most zombie movies feel the need to do (Zombieland is the rare exception) - have likeable characters die and become zombies. And in fact, apart from the (rather anonymous) title character, all the likeable characters get killed in this, in completely unnecessary ways. Also: I'm too old for the kind of earnest rock opera songs - I feel the need to look elsewhere when they're playing as it's positively embarrassing. It's supposed to be a mashup of a bunch of genres, but, like most films that attempt this (other than, of course, the mighty American Werewolf in London) it manages to be a very poor version of any of them. One positive: it's short, although it doesn't seem that way when you're watching it. I think its mildly positive reputation can only be based on pity: it comes across as a student film (ominously, it is the only entry in the director's imdb page), and if that was all it was, it would be one of the best of its kind, I suppose. Watch One Cut of the Dead instead - you won't be sorry.
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