While browsing new movies on Amazon.com, I came across Detention of The Dead and decided to pass on it. Not two hours later and someone had posted on the Horror Society Facebook page in promotion of the film’s release. This film was pretty much stalking me, so I finally decided to give it a shot. It may not be a George A. Romero flick, but zombies attacking a bunch of attractive young people could still be a good time if done correctly. Right?
Detention of The Dead is a new horror-comedy from Alex Craig Mann, a bit part actor now turned full fledged director. He wrote and directed this feature based on the novel by Rob Rinow. The lead actors in this movie are Jacob Zachar (“Greek”), Alexa Nikolas (“The Walking Dead,” Red State), Christa B. Allen (“Revenge”), Jayson Blair (“The New Normal”), Justin Chon (Twilight Saga), Max Adler (“Glee”), and Michele Messmer.
In Detention of The Dead, a group of high school seniors are forced into afternoon detention. The group is comprised of all your horror movie stereotypes – the nerd, the goth, the bully, the hot cheerleader, the stoner, and the jock. Almost as soon as the grueling hour experience begins, one of their fellow classmates comes down with the zombie virus and bites the teacher. When they flee the room to get help they discover that the whole school is under attack by flesh eating zombies! Now they must put their differences aside and work together to escape the school and campus that has become littered with zombies.
Detention of The Dead is definitely much more comedy than it is horror. I mean, not even the zombies were scary and nothing even came close to making me jump. As far as the comedy goes, it was all very silly. I think people who like Shuan of The Dead, Detention, and Scary Movie will get a good kick out of it. The humor is aimed at a younger, maybe teen audience. This isn’t surprising because the average, adult horror movie wouldn’t pick up a movie like this. With all that being said, ya know, I actually liked it! There’s a quality that the movie possesses that I can’t quite put my finger on that made it an enjoyable experience to view. Appreciation. I guess you could say I appreciate the film and what it tries to accomplish.
I’m not exactly sure why I enjoyed watching Detention of The Dead. All the special effects are kind of hokey. The plot development is obvious from start to finish. Again, the zombies are far from scary and the humor is for a younger audience. And there is not one likable character in the entire movie, except for “Willow” played by Alexa Nikolas. But, I still ended up watching the entire flick with bated breath. I did laugh my ass off at a particular scene involving a severed head, the American flag, and skateboard; and laughed even harder at the “HOUSE OF THE DEAD! HOUSE OF THE DEAD!” scene. So, maybe the thing wasn’t so bad.
Will I end up watching Detention of The Dead again? Probably not. I’m about 70% sure I’ll never give it a second viewing. Luckily for Alex Mann, Detention of The Dead was created beautifully for a small budget and will be a hit with the younger crowd. While the brand of humor was not of my taste, I know it is going to find a wide audience and do pretty decently on sale both through VOD and DVD. As a viewer, I just needed something more to give this review a fully positive review.
Then again…the first zombie reveal was pretty awesome, and the Midal part was genius. Ok, I’m just ending this review. I’ll give it a 6 out of 10 and then run away from the computer!
