Zombie Honeymoon

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 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.

(2004) Zombie Honeymoon COMEDY HORROR/ DRAMA

Despite it being only 1 hour and 23 minutes, it still feels like it was too little too long. What they should've called this movie instead of calling it "Zombie Honeymoon" is "I Have A Zombie For A Husband, Till Death Do Us Part!" since she may have took her marriage vows too seriously. Written, co-produced and directed by David Gebroe which the premise is young couple had just gotten married, Denise (Tracy Coogan) and Danny (Graham Sibley) Zanders and while on their honeymoon, a zombie just blatantly walks out of the ocean while her hubby is sound asleep on the beach. He infects him by mixing some saliva into his while he was trying to put a bite on him. At first, he's pronounced dead but soon he's okay, and so they thought... As I've mentioned above, despite it being less than an hour and a half, it still felt very long since much of the scenes seem to be unnecessary and sometimes convoluted. For instance, viewers get it they're in love with each other that much we don't need to be a witness to this, and that he needs to munch on other people to stay alive even though he doesn't necessarily finish off what he's started. And he also can go to the cemetery to munch on a dead body or eat an animal if he's not a vegetarian anymore. I mean, what she does is not the same for most people would do in real life so it is in that instance I can't relate to her character at all since I still find it disgusting to smooch a person who's just finished eating someone. For viewers are oblivious how contagious her husband really is making viewers wonder how come she's not infected. And in the eyes of the court because her zombie husband doesn't get any help, it kind of makes her an accessory to all of those people that he killed even though their was no real intent. And I agree with other users that the low production values doesn't help this movie either.

After getting married, Danny (Graham Sibley) and Denise (Tracy Coogan) travel for a honeymoon of one month long in a cottage of her uncle nearby the beach. Danny and Denise are in deep love, and while they are resting on the beach, Danny is attacked by a stumbled zombie that comes out of the sea and vomits into his mouth. Danny dies for ten minutes, and when the doctor declares him dead, he miraculously revives. Danny stays in observation in the hospital along the night, and on the next morning, they leave the place and he convinces Denise to travel to Portugal. However, the former vegetarian Danny, having an uncontrollable hunger for human flesh, attacks many people, while Denise cleans his bloody mess trying to help her beloved husband.

"Zombie Honeymoon" is a bizarre and gore love story, but unfortunately the confused screenplay fails, once mixes romance, drama, dark comedy and horror but in very wrong doses and the genre of the story is not well situated. This low budget movie is visually too heavy and gore for a romance, shallow for a drama, silly for a comedy and most of the tension of the horror scenes are broken by the dramatic love story of Denise and Danny. The make-up and effects are great for this type of B-movie, and with improvements in the screenplay it would certainly be a cult-movie since it has a great potential. I believe "Zombie Honeymoon" deserves to be watched with a few expectations, and maybe the viewer may be favorably surprised. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Lua-de-Mel Assombrada" ("Haunted Honeymoon")

I saw this at the Torino Film Festival a couple of months ago.

The director introduced the movie before the screening. He's a nice New Jersey guy, who almost could not believe he had been invited to Torino with his second feature film (the first one's title is called "The Homeboy" and it is briefly seen here in a funnily self-deprecating scene at a video-rental (a furious client returns it to the clerk and yells his money back - but he has to pay for returning it late). "Zombie Honeymoon", said the director, "is probably the first zombie-movie ever to be based on personal experience".

The audience was ready to laugh, but there was nothing funny about that: the plot is an effort to handle the untimely demise of the director's brother-in-law, who died in a surfing accident shortly after getting married. The premise of the movie, therefor, is telling the story of two people trying to remain together against all possible odds.

The film's protagonist, Danny, is a surfer as well - but what gets him (temporarily) killed is not an accident: like a rotting pal of Venus Anadiomene, a zombie walks out from the sea to directly attack the poor guy and vomit black goo straight into his mouth. Then he falls dead over him. Rushed unconscious to the hospital, our hero also dies, only to come back to life a few minutes later. Problem is, after coming back home he finds himself desperately hungry for human flesh - which understandably proves a shock to his young wife Denise.

While presenting the film, Gebroe introduced it as a cross between a John Cassavetes piece and "Night of the Living Dead" - which is a fitting description for "Zombie Honeymoon". Although the photography does leave a lot to be desired (the film is all shot on digital video, and the choice of a hand-held camera style proves somewhat a bit annoying instead of contributing to the realistic effect ), the dialog and the interaction between the two unfortunate newlyweds are all absolutely believable - and even moving at times. Graham Sibley (Danny) is OK, but the selling point to the film is Tracy Coogan's Denise - not only she's beautiful: she is also great in totally selling the story.

Maybe the film does lose some steam halfway through, when the gruesome suppers of Danny start becoming a little repetitive. However, the final 20 minutes are genuinely poignant - starting with a great scene where Danny, after eating some of his victims, spends a long time in the dark of his and Denise's home playing with one of those arcade games from the 80s, while Denise, devastated, comes close to him and watches him play the game without uttering a single word.

I won't spoil the ending of the best zombie romance since the underrated "Return of the Living Dead III", but any Blues Brothers fan should love the way Gebroe uses the song "Sometimes is Hard to be a Woman" - we sure kept humming it for the rest of the evening, while discussing if death couldn't be seen as the ultimate handicap. Do check this film out, it's worth your while.