Review: The Walking Deceased (2015)

[Mark R. Leeper]

THE WALKING DECEASED
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

CAPSULE: THE WALKING DECEASED is a wildly uneven zombie
film parody. It takes a lot of pot shots at other
familiar films, zombie and otherwise, but it soon loses
steam and by the final act neither the jokes nor the
plot of the film are working. Freshman Scott Dow
directs a script from freshman screenwriter Tim Ogletree.
There are better, funnier film parodies of the zombie
subgenre. Rating: high +0 (-4 to +4) or 5/10

The IMDB tells me that the original title of this film was WALKING
WITH THE DEAD. Do you get it? Like WALKING WITH DINOSAURS? But
my guess is that probably made the title seem a little sepulchral
and most people would not get it was a joke. So the film got the
more obviously humorous title THE WALKING DECEASED. If one gag is
not working, just remove the joke and drop another one in. Jokes
are a major fraction of the dialog; there is little that can be
taken at all seriously. That is sort of symbolic of the whole
film. The plot is weak as a story but wherever things are not
working the filmmakers just drop in another joke. Unfortunately
their humor becomes wearing and not very funny. They at least try
to take jabs at WARM BODIES, WORLD WAR Z, SHAUN OF THE DEAD, DAWN
OF THE DEAD, ZOMBIELAND, 28 DAYS LATER, and of course THE WALKING
DEAD. All the jabs leave little room to develop characters. You
do not need a zombie attack premise to spend several minutes
showing people getting stoned on drugs, but it seems thrown in to
help the film reach feature length.

Our story opens as Sheriff Lincoln (played by Dave Sheridan) awakes
in a hospital coming out of a coma and finds the world he knew has
come to an end while he was unconscious. (Note the reference to 28
DAYS LATER, and to THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS.) Soon we are jumping
around "two weeks later," "five weeks earlier"... Lincoln has
formed a small band of survivors killing zombies and roving around
the countryside. Joining the band is a closet zombie, Romeo (Troy
Ogletree), who decides not to be antisocial to the living. We hear
his thoughts as a sort of inner monolog, so the viewer may think he
is the main character until he notices there is another of the band
whose inner monologue appears in texting language as printed in
air. The band finds Safe Haven Ranch ruled over by a mysterious
couple who want to serve them Kool-Aid.

This is a film with minimal characterization beyond jokes and with
even less plot to it. By the last half hour it has lost its
narrative momentum. The movie is all sugar and no tension and is
stretched to feature length with excessive drug sequences and a lot
of politically incorrect humor. With all the zombie films being
made, by now there have been some decent films parodying the zombie
subgenre. Two of the better ones are FIDO and WARM BODIES. This
one I cannot recommend. I rate this one a 0 on the -4 to +4 scale
or 4/10.

If you want to see the blooper clips of the actors having a good
time, they run under the closing credits. But nobody involved with
this film has the wit of a Jackie Chan.

Film Credits: <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3499458/combined>

What others are saying:
<http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_walking_deceased/>


Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 2015 Mark R. Leeper