movie coverI'd rather be watching TV![IMDB link] [Netflix link]

PEOPLE: Written & Directed by Mathias Dinter, who apparently does a lot of German sex comedies. Starring German actors who do Germany movies.. Nobody here is going to have heard of any of them.

The female love interest — a half-rate goth, Collien Fernandes, threw me for a loop because I couldn’t ascertain her ethnicity (Her father is Portuguese of Indian (Goan) descent and her mother is Hungarian.) Never would have guessed. I sillily assumed everyone in a German movie was going to be blonde-haired and blue-eyed :) Anyway, she was the Maxim girl of the year in 2003 and 2006 for the German Maxim magazine, so it’s really easy to do a google image search of her.


PLOT SUMMARY: Some less-popular stoner kids end up becoming zombies, and using this to solve their high school social problems…

UNCOMFORTABLE PLOT SUMMARY (inspired by this): Hanging out with goths makes your dick fall off. [highlight for spoilers]→ But you can staple it back on.

HAIKU REVIEW: Zombie comedy.
Sex, pot, Satan, parties, blood.
High school got better.

QUIRKS: German high-school stoner zombie comedy. Definitely not a horror, at all. A zombie comedy featuring high school stoner kids. It’s an awesome combination of subject matter, actually.

It’s always fun when a movie has a keg party.

VISUALS: Not particularly exciting, since this is a foreign film. It was shot in 2004 but the film quality looks like 1994.

GOOD STUFF: Hilarious! All kinds of good jokes, framed together in your typical 80’s-feel party sex pot teen comedy.

BAD STUFF: Other than the film stock looking like it came from another decade, there’s little that could really be considered bad here. The movie has a non-serious “80’s movie” feel that might put off some hipsters who want things to be all serious and poignant and meaningful. But people who like movies like we like are quite satisfied to have entertainment that doesn’t take itself seriously.

A possible flaw is that, in this movie, zombies are actually stronger than real humans. In horror movies I get the sense that, while they can take more damage, they are generally weaker than humans. Of course, there are zombie types like I Am Legend which are clearly super strong and super fast, so really, who’s to say how fast or strong a zombie can be?

CONCLUSION: What an enjoyable combination! This movie exceeded all our expectations and is damn funny. No wonder an American remake is happening. A teen sex/drug/romance comedy where the teens become zombies and don’t realize it at first because they’re too stoned? How can this go wrong?

RATINGS:
Clint: Netflix: 4.6/5 stars. IMDB: 8/10.
Carolyn: Netflix: 4/5 stars. IMDB: 8/10. “It was definitely better than I expected.”
TwoBeans: Netflix: 5/5 stars. IMDB: 10/10.

The native public rating for this movie is: IMDB: 5.8/10, Netflix: 3.2/5 stars (Netflix‘s predicted rating for us was 3.8/5 stars–they were right to know we’d like this one better than average).

RECOMMENDATION: If you like stoner comedies… If you like high-school comedies… If you like zombie flicks… You just might like all three smushed together. There’s only one way to find out — watch this lesser-known film and judge for yourself! I had my apprehensiveness about watching something so osbcure, but it turned out to be quite awesome. Who knew Germany could make such a good film? This is probably only the 2nd or 3rd German film I’ve watched in my life.

Also, make sure to watch the alternate ending on the DVD extras! It’s like 15 alternate minutes!

SIMILAR MOVIES: The closest thing to a movie like this would possibly be some of the horror-spoof movies like Scream 1-4, or Jack Brooks:Monster Slayer. But that comparison does not do this movie justice. Wait for the remake to come out. It will be interesting to see where they take it in an American version. ESPECIALLY since it will be directed by Michael Showalter of The State! Wow!Mood: haha
Music: Sabbat – The Church Bizarre (live)