Dead & Breakfast

A group of friends has to go to a wedding, and decide to take a drive trough the American Midwest to get there... but they get lost...have to spend the night in a bed and breakfast, in a little Midwestern town. Soon the whole city turn into zombies, and start killing everyone. Let's face it, you should not expect a great scenario, but who would expect a great scenario in a zombie movie. This one is a especially good. Cut into chapters, separated by country songs, the whole thing is well directed and well played (in context : this is a zombie film, not the next Oscar winning blockbuster), and blood is dripping all over the place, a bit of humor, and bits and pieces of bodies. A future classic of the genre. And you should watch the remix of Jackson's "Thriller" while the zombies are attacking : hilarious. Another highpoint is the presence of Carradine (Bill in Kill Bill), yeah! Zombie Rocks.

I had this one sitting around for awhile (as I recorded off TV about two years ago), but I heard mainly poor things which made me leave to sit on my shelf gathering dust. Clearing out my copies, I decided to take the dive and in all honesty it wasn't too bad. It might be dumb, but still sorely entertaining. The very low-budget horror / comedy 'Dead & Breakfast' is completely daft, but surprisingly amusing with its tongue-in-cheek pulp send-up of the zombie sub-genre. Its influences are obvious, but it doesn't try to hide it but wears it on its sleeve. After an imaginative get-go, it does fall on the familiar side (small rural town under threat/people boarded in a house with the dead outside) with its running joke beginning to wear thin, but its comic book enthusiasm (and crazy blood splatter) drives it on. It really relishes in the gruesomely squishy make-up FX and oddball pluckiness. However it has some interesting facets like the storyboard illustrations cutting between scenes and linking the erratic storytelling is a singing narration (which does feel longer than it is) with a real country swing. But the leering one would be variation of how the zombies come about. Nicely done. Roaming through is a rock soundtrack, and a score that's got the flair to match. The performances are light-head, but colourfully quirky and sharp with the likes of Gina Phillips (who's perfectly wholesome), Jeremy Sisto, Bianca Lawson, Ever Carradine, Erik Palladino, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Brent David Fraser and Miranda Bailey. It was cool to see David Carradine pop up in a cameo role too. Also recognizable showing in minor parts are Vincent Ventresca, Portia de Rossi and Diedrich Bader. Spiritedly goofy, messy fun.

A group of young adults decides to stay in a bed and breakfast for the night, but by morning two people are dead. Now witnesses and possibly suspects, the sheriff keeps them in town... but that's not the best idea, since there's about to be an outbreak of zombies, and not many will survive the next few days.

Maybe you stumbled on this film because you like horror comedies. And if you did, that was a good idea. It's funny and has gore that may remind you of such low budget classics as the early works of Peter Jackson ("Bad Taste" and "Dead Alive"). Nice blood, decapitated heads, a chainsaw and a homemade shotgun.

Maybe you stumbled on this because of the cameos from Diedrich Bader and David Carradine, or the appearance of horror regular Jeremy Sisto. Bader and Carradine are both great, though their parts are small. Sisto is also his typical self, which means you'll probably enjoy him. He's not as prominent as he is in other films (such as "May"), but he does not disappoint.

The reason you should have watched this film, but you probably didn't, is for Zach Selwyn (also known as simply Zachariah). He plays Randall Keith Randall, the musical gas station attendant. His songs are great, particularly one where he mixes rap and country, and has zombies dancing the "Thriller" dance. (Outside of this film, he is marginally known for his songs "CILF" and "TSA Gangstaz"... YouTube them.) The film would have been great without him, but he brought the enjoyment over the top.

I had known of this film's existence for years, but never had it forced on me until now... I'm glad it was. The picture's a little grainy and the budget is clearly nothing special, but if you're the type of horror fan who can look past that... you'll love it. The only problem is that Billy Burke (Charlie Swan from "Twilight") dropped out and doesn't appear... but you wouldn't notice.

I had to post a comment as the previous one was far too harsh on this film.

I saw this film with quite a lot of expectations of it and was pleasantly surprised that it didn't let them down too much. That's not to say it is the greatest horror comedy, but it it really entertaining.

Caradines appearance seems to have more to do with having a famous face, than anything, but his appearance it welcome.

The "crazy" songs in the film vary from being a reasonable narrative device to being incredibly grating, but i guess in the spirit of how the film is presented they are okay. They could put people right off the film though, if they are too humourless.

So it's no Evil Dead 2 or Bloodsucking Pharoahs, but it a good watch for your horror fans and your non horror fans looking for a light horror romp to kill an evening.

I was at a screening of Dead and Breakfast tonight at the Sidewalk Film Festival here in Birmingham and really enjoyed the movie.

Warning- this movie is not for the weak of stomach. Gore content is out of the roof. However if you are a fan of splatter comedies such as the Evil Dead series, this movie is a must see.

The premise of the movie is your stereotypical horror movie set up. On the way to a wedding a group of semi-strangers get stuck in a small town overnight and someone gets killed.

The highly comedic twist to this horror is apparent even after the first killing as one of the group spends a good thirty seconds trying to run away from the dead body and instead slipping in a pool of blood over and over.

This movie was very much influenced by the Evil Dead series (in fact you can even see an Evil Dead poster in the closet where they first find the chainsaw) but does the comedy even better.

The appropriately over-the-top music of Zach Selwyn serves as a good and humorous progression between the scenes. He features original songs such as "Comin to kill ya", "Possessed" and "Quiet Little Town".

This was one of the best movies that I've seen in a very long time and I would give it a 9/10.