Diagnosis: Death

Anyone watching this expecting a horror will be missing the point. This is a movie which includes in cameo roles the stars of Flight of the Conchords.

There's nothing serious about this movie, and the plot is very light; the reason to watch this movie is the characters, who though almost only two dimensional in depth, are very likable.

The tone/rhythm of the movie is a lot like Flight of the Conchords, as is it's subdued humor.

There really isn't much more to say about this movie.

I enjoyed quite a bit.

It's a light, enjoyable snack.

So this is fun. Well it is a comedy I should say. It can also be annoying. Not the fun bits (although since humor is in the eye of the beholder ... who knows?), but the "scary" bits. If you constantly get kicked over and over again ... you would get annyoed and maybe bored.

This is what happens with the jump scares here. Some may be thrown in as jokes of course ... but yeah. The story is alright if predictable. A decent horror comedy though some may feel there could have been more with the people involved in this.

Given less than three months to live, unethical school-teacher Andre Chang (Raybon Kan, who also co-wrote the film) takes part in a weekend drug trial, hoping that he'll get 'the good stuff'. While there he befriends 18-year-old schoolgirl Juliet Reid (unconvincingly played by 28-year-old Jessica Grace Smith), who helps him to work out whether a series of strange occurrences on the ward are merely hallucinations caused by the drugs or if a restless spirit is the real cause.

The quote on the cover for this New Zealand horror comedy claims that it is "as funny as Shaun of the Dead", while the blurb on the back informs us that Diagnosis: Death gives a 'gruesome nod to Peter Jackson's early films'. Neither could be further from the truth.

It seems quite fitting that the two central characters of this diabolical misfire are suffering from a terminal disease, because the whole thing is about as funny as inoperable cancer. I can honestly say that I didn't laugh once throughout the movie, but I did yawn quite a bit. And as far as graphic violence is concerned, there is very little to be seen for most of the run-time, and even when it does get gory, it's nowhere near on the same scale as Bad Taste or Braindead.

2/10. Not worth the effort, even for avid fans of NZ cult comedy Flight of the Conchords: the cameos by the show's stars -- Jemaine Clement, Bret McKenzie, and Rhys Darby -- are all too brief and also not in the slightest bit amusing.

This is a nice, low-budget, interesting little movie. Great to see a film with one of the main writers as a lead (funny-man Raybon Kan, who is as good-a comedian as he is a movie star). Suze Tye was my favorite though, creepy & beautiful at the same time, I thoroughly enjoyed her character and the way she portrayed Nurse Bates

Comparable to Shaun of the Dead, (which also features a great writer/actor; Simon Pegg) but on a smaller scale, with very much the same RomCom Horror spirit (not so much horror, but enough to remove any chick-flick stigma :)

I'd expect short-sighted mainstream movie-buffs to quickly denounce and criticize this film, so 'skip this one' if you're too narrow-minded to appreciate the simple things in life

Go NZ movies!!

Watched this with some friends. Found it most useful for ridicule, a la MST 3K.

A teenage student (who appears to be 30) and a teacher for whatever reason agree to participate in a drug trial locked into a clinic with a confused doctor (Flight of the Concords' Bret McKenzie), an insane nurse, and, as it turns out, a family of ghosts looking for revenge. They experience hallucinations and explore the mystery of how the ghosts died.

The movie is laugh out loud hilarious with the three main cast member of Flight of the Concords popping in and out randomly. The mystery makes no sense. The sexual relationship between the girl and the teacher would be creepy were she not clearly about as old as he is. The climax is ridiculously artificial.

Basically, grab a beer and make fun of Diagnosis Death and you can have a good time. Take it seriously, and you'll be lost.