Night of the Living Deb

SPOILERS AHEAD

Night of the Living Deb (2015) is a romantic comedy meets zombie flick. The film starts out with female protagonist Deb having some unrequited feelings for her male counterpart Ryan and then, in a totally predictable twist, the two fall in love and live happily ever after. Granted there are a few undead bumps in the road. Despite there being no surprise to their eventual love, I still found it enjoyable to watch it unfold and it is, after all, the classic tale of a romantic comedy. The plot is quite similar to the film pitch I wrote, therefore this is obviously my kind of movie. Two lovers find themselves in a zombie apocalypse and have to work together to survive while simultaneously falling for each other, sign me up! The movie ends joyfully with the two being rescued from the isolated location in which the zombies had taken over, free to live out the rest of their lives together. One twist that actually did get me was when, at the end of the movie, Deb was bitten by a zombie and both the characters and myself thought that she had met her end. In a comedic turn of events, the paramedics that rescued the two put a bandage on her shoulder and just told her to keep it clean and it should heal just fine. Ryan and Deb were confused and then the paramedics, in a totally 2016 fashion, acted very offended by their stereotyping of zombies to pull their legs and informed them that this specific type was caused by contaminated water and could not be transferred via bite.

I found the dialogue of Night of the Living Deb to be hilarious. The title alone made me giggle and caused the movie to stand out in the endless options on Netflix. Deb has a sarcastic sense of humor throughout the film which made for some pretty great one liners. The story is also set in a very current time period which made the references relatable and perfectly timed. One part near the beginning of the movie that made me laugh out loud was when Ryan was getting coffee the morning of the outbreak and his usual barista Joe walks out of the back munching on some toes. Ryan screams, completely confused and alarmed, "JOE! WHY ARE YOU EATING A FOOT?"

I chose this film because the actor who plays the male protagonist, Ryan, also plays a main character on one of my favorite and wrongfully cancelled television shows Men at Work. As the movie progresses, to my excitement, I discover that Ryan’s father is played by the same man who plays Robin Scherbatsky’s dad on How I Met Your Mother, my actual all time favorite show. Watching actors that I know so well as their previous roles brought a whole new comedic element to the film that I appreciated. I think the acting in this movie is really good, which took me by surprise because it can be difficult to find a movie that actually pulls off the horror comedy title. The makeup and special effects in Night of the Living Deb were also very believable. They were not super gory and over the top like in Zombieland (2009), they were more tame and how I would imagine the start of a zombie apocalypse would look like, though still disgusting and awesome.

Overall, I would give this movie 4 out of 5 brains because I thoroughly enjoyed it and it is the kind of movie I would watch in my spare time but I do not think there was anything particularly spectacular about it and I believe 5 brains should be reserved for the likes of Zombieland and movies like Pulp Fiction (1994).

IMDB:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3602128/

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Pqm_drZQ44

Available on Netflix and iTunes