Flick (2008, David Howard)

These days, I'm finding it harder and harder to be impressed by a zombie film from a non-technical point of view since the recipe seems to have become incredibly drained and ineffective, in my opinion. Not that I can't enjoy a standard zombie movie, I think I just got burnt out on them as a zombie-craved youth. Still, certain film makers have come along with a certain astral strength and creative flair that can make for a rather charismatic interpretation of the "zombie" concept, though I can't seem to help but find modern, reanimated corpse themed films repetitive, as well as unimaginative.

"Flick" is one of those semi-enjoyable "zombie love story" movies (could swear I've seen that scenario before) that stems from an impressive amount of production value and directorial competency that can definitely help to make up of the not-so stimulating story-line. It begins at a 50s high school dance where a love-sick, loser with a cartoonish stuttering problem approaches his popular 'hot girl' crush for an innocent dance. His nerdy forwardness causes him to get a nice beat down from the bullies in front of everyone. Following his crowd pleasing humiliation, he lashes out into a fury of switch blade vengeance before swiping up his beloved dame and hitting the road. As he speeds away, his car goes careening off the road and into a lake where the girl manages to ascend to the surface, leaving the freakish dweeb to die... Years later, the car is recovered from the depths and the decomposed assailant springs to life to seek out bloody revenge of the remaining bullies and get that one kiss from his (now old) past love interest. A pair of detectives (one of which is played by Faye Dunnaway) are desperate to track down the undead murderer whose "angle" is: he can only kill while music is playing... And he doesn't eat human flesh... but he dances.

What made "Flick" a worthwhile zombie(ish) film was the rather artful way in which it was visually composed. Sepia tones and bright neon colors are used to characterize various settings. There's some clever usage of green screen (for that old timey "feel"), oddly animated blood spray, and certain scenes are told through comic book panels. The good points have been noted...

Creative touches such as these will definitely enhance an, otherwise, generic story such as the one offered up by David Howard's "Flick", but only so much. I can't exactly recommend the movie too highly, as it does drag a lot and the love-sick zombie idea is highly clichéd and annoying.

"Flick" isn't the worst... flick you'll see, but there are many more run-of-the-mill "indie" zombie movies that are much more engaging.