Undead or Alive (2007)
Another third time viewing film for me.
A couple of mismatched cowboys meet up with an Apache girl and they discover the wild west is wilder than they first thought as its full of flesh eating zombies.
It seems almost lazy to say if you enjoyed Shaun of the Dead then you'll like this, cliched in fact. In the case of Undead or Alive the analogy might actually be correct. Like the Pegg / Frost film, Undead or Alive mixes gore with laughs, not ridiculous laughs, subtler ones that non horror fans may even miss. Also they both have superb dialogue, especially in the camaraderie of the lead players, who seem to be having a lot of fun, yet never lowering themselves to parody, in fact in both films most of the laughs for me come from the excellent dialogue.
Undead or Alive also stands out from the run of the mill zombie horror comedies due to its frankly superb cinematography. In fact much of the location work in Santa Fe and New Mexico is so good it would have impressed the great John Ford with its panoramic vistas. One or two shots also remind me of Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven in the way they are framed. So immediately the film gets the western influence and style spot on, what about the horror? We have everything a zombie fan could want - gut munching, flesh ripping, heads rolling, decent zombie make up, oh and brain eating - with a spoon. This film gets the horror / comedy blend right as far as i'm concerned and together with an enjoyable story, creates one of the better genre mash ups in recent years.
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