Corpse Rave, by Reed Lackey

There are precious few subgenres of film I enjoy more than a good horror-comedy. The best of the bunch succeed on both levels and manage to frighten as much as they induce laughter. Paying homage to that subgenre, and attempting to find its way on the same shelf with the greats, is the new film from director Torey Haas called The Neon Dead. Unfortunately, the film becomes a bit too bogged down by its own ambition, but that doesn’t mean it’s not quite a bit of fun.

The story begins when Allison, played by the charming and lovely Marie Baker, wakes up and begins to prepare for a job interview she desperately needs to go well, only to discover a glowing green zombie in her bathroom. By ridiculous coincidence, a door-to-door girl scout happens to know the phone number to a pair of freelance monster-busters. She makes the call to the would-be heroes (whose real job is, of course, video store clerks) and they arrive post-haste to take care of the fluorescent threat.

If the entire film were merely that premise for 80 minutes, I think I’d have enjoyed it more. But oddly enough, the writer/director chooses to expand the actual lore of these incandescent undead monsters, and in the abundant exposition the film begins to lose its way (and its steam). It spends entirely too much time developing a narrative of the creation of these glowing undead creatures and their potential to destroy the whole world. By the time things culminate is a full-blown monster-busting war, we’ve lost the majority of our investment to flashback sequences and lengthy expositions which do little to raise our stakes or our engagement.

However, in those sequences of man-vs-walking-glow-stick, the film really is having a good time and it’s likely that most audiences will as well. The acting is uneven, with the Marie Baker giving a solid and enjoyable performance, but with less credible work by Greg Garrison and Dylan Schettina – the two monster-busters. The script is also uneven, with several jokes ringing quite funny and others falling as flat as a vanquished zombie, not to mention the previously referenced and utterly unwieldy mythology. The production is glaringly low-budget, but this is actually part of the fun in stories about monster-busting. If it looked too polished, it would demand to be taken more seriously, and one thing this movie is definitely not doing is asking to be taken seriously.

Because how much substance do you really need from a battle against the glowing green undead? So, if you’re in the mood for what this film is presenting, you’ll likely find yourself entertained. Despite a bogged down narrative and frustratingly uneven performances, it is a surprising amount of fun.