Song of the Dead

Show Me Pictures

R1 DVD

Web: http://www.songofthedead.com

Song of the Dead is a zombie musical-comedy-horror film and comes complete with buckets of gore, dancing zombies and a rock opera score. At the same time it has a strong politically satirical message and the director Chip Gubera has even offered a portion to the films profits to anti war politicians such as Ron Paul.

The film opens as Sandy King (Kate Gorman) with her emotionally unstable boyfriend Brad (Travis Hierholzer) place flowers on Sandy’s mother’s grave, who sadly died when travelling to Brad’s coming home party after he has institutionalized for some time. Suddenly, they are attacked by a zombie which Brad has to kill with a spade. Escaping with their lives (but with Brad bitten after a further zombie encounter), they travel to Sandy’s families cabin.

All across America, the dead are returning from their graves and attacking the living. The President (Reggie Bannister from the Phantasm films) advises that the dead are returning to life due to a pathogen of some sort and that while it was spread by the US military trying to eradicate the 100 year mosquito virus, it must have been “infected” by terrorists, naming an unheard individual as the one to blame. He christens the virus the Jihad Resurrection Virus (JRV) and sees the zombies as a new wave of terrorists.

Sandy and Brad arrive at the Cabin and team up with Sandy’s military brother and their Vietnam War veteran father Harold King (Conrad Gubera). Together they form the frontline to protect each other against the deadly zombie invasion. As they fight against the zombie menace Sandy is saved by Arthur Bundy (Steve Andsager). However, Arthur is now as “clean” as he seems, he admits his hobby is killing and he has buried twenty of his victims in the local graveyard. However, in these dark days, perhaps a professional killer is what they need to survive.

Song of the Dead is a fun amalgam of gore, comedy, satire and song and dance numbers. On the plus side it is highly entertaining and offers a nice twist on the zombie genre. On the down side the acting tends to be a bit amateur and the music and dancing varies greatly in quality, some are rather fun (the zombie song is great), while others are less so. Reggie Bannister as a cult favourite is great as the President, for example, but he clearly can’t hold a note even if his life depended on it. I also hate to say it but someone should teach those zombies how to dance, I mean, really....

Song of the Dead is an amusing romp and is funny, satirical and perhaps a little ridiculous. But it is worth a watch.