Zombie Honeymoon

On the first day of the romantic honeymoon at the beach, a random zombie that comes stumbling out of the ocean infects Danny with an incurable virus. After being dead for a full ten minutes, he miraculously awakes and even continues planning his emigration to Portugal with his beloved bride Denise. But Danny really isn't the same anymore, as his insatiable hunger for human flesh drives him to forcefully attack people while Denise – loving wife as she is – helps him get rid of the leftover corpses. For only his second film as a writer slash director, Dave Gebroe had the bizarre ambition to blend gross horror with genuine romantic drama and even to throw in bits of comedy. The idea is admirable but, as you can imagine, the result is an often lacking and pathetic film. You can't really expect a story to emotionally affect you while you're watching at a slowly rotting zombie that takes large bites of flesh out of people, right? Luckily for me, I saw this film at a national festival where Gebroe himself came to enlighten the audience about his motivations and influences to make it. Believe it or not, but that actually helped me appreciating the effort slightly more! The whole dramatic aspect of the story is apparently based on a real event, as the director's brother-in-law tragically died in a surfing accident, which left his young wife behind with an emotional trauma. Re-working bits and pieces of this real-life drama into a horror film served as some sort of therapy for Gebroe, who was really fond of his brother-in-law as well. However, even with bearing Gebroe's introduction in mind, "Zombie Honeymoon" can't possibly pass for a good film. The sentimental moments are painfully tedious whereas the zombie action is quite gore and explicit. These sudden changes in tone are difficult to process and especially the tongue-in-cheek gags entirely miss their effect. The make-up effects are rather convincing considering the fairly low budget and the acting performances are spirited. The music selection and exterior filming locations; both a homage to the deceased Danny as well, are winning elements too.

And now it is time for something completely different. Writer/Director David Gebroe has managed to give us an old fashioned zombie movie with a twist that is unique.

We see Denise and Danny rushing from the church to enjoy a honeymoon. They are the happiest of couples. They are lying on the beach and something happens to shake their world. Soon, Denise will have to remember that line she said in church earlier that day - in sickness and in health.

Graham Sibley and Tracey Coogan give us very interesting performances as a couple with a special problem. Lots of zombie gore in an interesting twist to the genre.

I was as surprised by the quality of this indie outing as I was by finding it in my public library in the first place. None of the principals involved seem to have gone much of anywhere in the past few years, but that's no slur on the integrity of this admirable little piece of cult film-making.

I suspect many of the negative commentaries posted here are from people who expected something more directly related to the Romero/Argento zombie mythos. That's not what this very personal story is concerned with, and more power to it. Instead, what we get is what we might expect given the title: a romantic tale of true love between a blushing new bride and her unfortunately zombified groom. Well actually, the groom doesn't do the undead two-step until after they're married, but who's to quibble? Well written and shot with only a few naff scenes, "Zombie Honeymoon" features very respectable performances from a cast of unknowns, especially Tracy Coogan as the young woman who has no trouble getting her husband to eat leftovers, particularly if they're human. Graham Sibley as the hubby turns in a good showing as well, although at times he seemed a bit too fey. The rest of the cast achieves various levels of believability, but overall the ensemble is far superior to that of, say, "Undead." I won't say this is as clever or engaging as "Shaun of the Dead," which plants itself firmly in Romeroland, but it's definitely worth a cheap rental or a lucky borrow at the library. I had to give it a "6" just for the quality that ended up on the screen.

Put it this way: with a little bit of script-tweaking and a higher production budget, along with the casting of marketable names, "Zombie Honeymoon" could have been a true classic. As it is, it's still a very watchable film and I hope that Mr. Gebroe is able to find further work in the industry. His talent and passion are more than evident. I also hope Ms. Coogan pops up again somewhere down the line, because she's not only a cutie, she's got some acting chops that aren't typically seen in indie films like this one. I'd say her greatest weakness is that she looks like too many other young actresses without having her own distinctive edge. Still, she's young, and with a little luck may well earn herself a worthy career. She has my best wishes, that's for sure.

I loved the storyline, but I'm not sure if I liked the movie. Maybe it was too emotional for me, maybe it was too serious, maybe it had too much drama and too little horror, I don't know what it was but I do know I was bored throughout most of it.

The movie starts off with an overly obnoxious couple who were way too giddy for me not to be annoyed. Ya, I get it, you just got married but they more acted like a ten year old who just got his first transformer, then an adult couple. Another thing that bothered me about this movie was in order to make the audience "get the picture" they would have scenes where nothing was going on, no sounds, no movement, just sad faces for what seemed like an eternity.

If you are looking for a sweet "love" story that more fits a horror movie rather then a drama with some blood I would recommended David Morlet's "Mutants" (2009). Now that was a good horror movie about a relationship trying to survive through the odds.

I just saw this last night. Although it has some really strong points--the lead actress especially--it was ultimately disappointing. The problem is that the director didn't settle on a single genre. It could have been a solid quirky comedy like SHAUN OF THE DEAD--there are some very funny scenes. But there are also really intense scenes that don't mesh with the comedy.

If the decision had been made to make a totally serious emotional film--what do you do when your new husband turns into a flesh-eating zombie?--but the comic scenes undercut that intensity.

Or it could have been a great mindless gore film--and there's plenty of great gore here. This film has plenty of good elements, but it just doesn't hold together.

I will definitely check out whatever this director does next.