Bridget Jones' Zombie
Whilst out with a girl friend, the slightly awkward Deb (Maria Thayer) makes a drunken play for the handsome Ryan (Michael Cassidy). Next thing she knows she is waking up in his bedroom and can hear him on the phone in the other room asking a friend what he should do. Having awkwardly managed to get Deb out of the house they suddenly find themselves in the middle of a zombie apocalypse on the 4th of July. Now Deb and Ryan are going to have to work to work together to survive and for Deb it is a chance for Ryan to fall in love with her.
Take a standard zombie apocalypse storyline and make it a comedy, that would make "Night of the Living Deb" sound like just another "Shaun of the Dead" wannabe. But "Night of the Living Deb" is more of a spoof than a comedy as we have gags which include Deb sitting on the shoulders of a zombie, swerving to run down zombies as if it was a game and Deb being an over the top character with the awkward romantic nature of Bridget Jones but with the dial turned up so her romantic notions are seriously over the top. And on paper it sounds like it should work but whilst not a terrible movie "Night of the Living Deb" has issues.
Now one of those issues is clearly a financial one and to put it simply this zombie comedy lacks the finesse of a big budget horror comedy but you can get pass this. The other problem is that whilst there are some good gags, including those in a shop selling Christmas decorations, the main one comes from the central characters with Deb being a bit of a Bridget Jones whilst Ryan is annoyingly environmentally friendly and is an over the top nice guy. The comedy of these characters is initially entertaining in a spoof sense of a way but after a while you need more and it doesn't quite deliver despite introducing extra characters including Ryan's father, played by Ray Wise.
What this all boils down to is that "Night of the Living Deb" is a zombie comedy with potential but one as it is doesn't quite get it right with a need for more humour and maybe a bit less spoofing.
Tags: Zombie Movies
