Zombie Honeymoon (2004)

Running Time: 83 minutes

Release Date: October 23, 2004

Review by: Chris   

'Til death do us part. Words to love by. But what if that love is the shambling horror born of Romero's magnum opus? 2004's indie horror fest Zombie Honeymoon is writer/director David Gebroe's swing at the question. Part horror and part romance with a sprinkling humor, made ZH impossible to pass up as a featured review for us here at TAF.

    Right off the bat it must be mentioned that Zombie Honeymoon is inappropriately titled. While yes, the events in our tale do occur during a honeymoon and it does involve the aforementioned zombie; the actual title "zombie honeymoon" makes you picture a carefree, zany, 70's gore and boob fest rife with puns, one liners and chainsaw-wielding hotties in tank tops.  Light-hearted is exactly what ZH is not. Inspired from the tragedy suffered by David Gebroe's younger sister at the loss of her husband, ZH is a hybrid of therapy and a "valentine to her strength, her ability to get through her grief and keep moving in life." What emerges is a seriously toned examination of what it is to wholly and completely give yourself to someone regardless of what has become of them. Far more art house than slasher fair. Are we having fun yet?

 

    We are introduced to the young couple Denise and Danny who are in the midst of a whirlwind romance and have set off to the Jersey shore for their honeymoon. With all their dreams and future ahead of them they are suddenly struck by tragedy when Danny is attacked my a mysterious, rotting man beast coming up from the surf. In the struggle the attacker vomits a viscous black fluid onto Danny and just as quickly expires leaving Danny near death. Soon there after Danny is pronounced dead at the local hospital and the world is crumbling around Denise, when just as suddenly as he died, Danny is suddenly alive no worse for the wear. The departure here from the standard "bitten, infected, start biting others," formula, is really what stood out in ZH. Instead of spiraling emerging tragedy, we are presented with a near miss that leaves our protagonist a bit shaken, but overall standing and ready for the lives to continue. Then the real meat of the story begins.

    
Danny starts getting hungry. Nearly immediately after returning from death, Danny starts dispatching of anyone near enough to maul with much gusto. Twisting the zombie trope on its axis, Gebroe gives us a creature more akin to a newly turned vampire developing the "thirst," than the classic mindless eating machine. The decent of Danny is in an intriguing device, but it is overshadowed by Denise's discovery of what is happening to her husband and the affect it has on her world. Here is the ZH's centerpiece. How deep is her devotion to her slowly transforming husband and how far will she go to try to preserve the life they wanted to build. A mirror of the grieving process is on display has she goes step by step from denial to acceptance in the course of Danny's feeding frenzy. Along the way we are introduced to a few flat characters that serve little more than fodder for Danny's appetite. One does stand out in the form of the local cop Officer Carp, who has questions about the sudden disappearances that are occurring as of late. Although the dialog is a bit dry, the performance of Neal Jones as Officer Carp is indeed dark and does much to induce a bizarre tension. As Danny continues eating his way through the Jersey suburbs we are treated to bit of odd humor as he continues to have trouble keeping his meals down as a result of the fact that he and Denise are practicing vegetarians. Eventually Danny cannot keep is composure against the hunger and begins attacking freely culminating with a showdown with the police where we soon discover that a bullet to the head is not a cure for this particular zombie hunger.  In the end, Danny's last sparks of fading humanity spares Denise from the same fate that claimed him as he avoids turning her and expires like the man on the beach.

    ZH is certainly and bit more of an original take on the classic zombie film. Taking an original approach to established ideas is a staple of the indie market and ZH earns its "street cred" with its path. However its path is not free of odd twists and trips. Through the story it seems that ZH has trouble establishing what exactly is happening to Danny. Yes he returned to life after dying but it never established if he was in fact alive again. Danny's decent physically alters his appearance, a la Dorian Gray, where he resembles more and more a traditional zombie; however when he finally "dies," he appears reverts to that of his old self. Was the change only as he appeared to Denise? If this was illustrating the point that it was her perception of Danny that was changing, it was a brilliant reveal. Definitely a strong artistic move, however the original beach zombie did not revert when he expired, and horror movies need rules. Tracy Coogan's portrayal of Denise was quite the show. We see into what love, for her, means. Everything from the initial shock of Danny's loss, to the denial of his condition, to the eventual surrender to her situation and finally letting go of her attachment to him, is right out of the "how to deal with a loved one with an addiction" handbook. No her portrayal was not a tour de force of acting 101, but we do see a touch Streep when she comes to eventual acceptance.
    

 

Now the big question. Should you see this film. ZH at its core, has powerful motivations stirring its currents. Love and death and hunger are the primary motivations for most of us carbon based meat-bags meandering around this space rock and ZH hits those subjects head on. The zombie with an intact mind fighting a lifetime of societal development against a newly instinctual primal hunger is a brilliant notion. Add to that the POV of the bonded partner desperately trying to hold the center with the world spinning out of control and you have reams of story and nuance to delve into. A fantastic idea. Idea. And that is the key word. Zombie Honeymoon has some truly brilliant, original ideas. But ideas alone do not a great film make. The film suffers where most art house fair does in that there is plenty of passion but little technical expertise. The writing and dialog leave much to be desired if we are to suspend our disbelief long enough to care for these characters. And while there is certainly real effort doled out by a few of the cast, the rest were for enough away from skilled that it became grating to share them on the same screen. Still, a refreshing take on an established genre is always welcome as is a project where you can still see the creators passion dripping from their snouts.

 

7/10 bloody slow dances