Dance of the Dead 2008

Every year Ghosthouse puts out a group of horror movies, usually eight I think, all at the same time and a little on the low budget side.  About half of them are worth a buy and the cream of the crop in 2008 was Dance of the Dead.  This is the only movie that I can remember where I saw a zombie frog, quite the concept.

The star of this movie is Jared Kusnitz who played the little brother in another cool horror film, Otis.  He plays pretty much the same type of kid here, a high school slacker and class smart ass.  It's the day of the prom and he and his girlfriend have a little spat and she tells him she's not going with him.  She decides to go with the class rich boy who parks with her in the local graveyard for a little romance and alcohol before the dance starts which is a bad idea.

The graveyard is right next door to a nuclear power plant and a leak there is spreading to the graves and, you guessed it, the dead is rising.  At the same time the couple is trying to fend of a zombie attack, some of the class nerds who couldn't get dates to the prom are fighting off another zombie attack in another portion of the graveyard.  From that point forward it's all about the nerds, the slacker, his girlfriend and others teaming up to stop the zombies who are headed for the prom.

There are some really funny characters and situations in this film, including the gravedigger who's been trying to keep the dead in their graves for awhile and a crazed high school coach.  This movie has over the top gore and it's a lot of fun.  The special effects are a little weak at times but that' what you get with a low budget offering, the comedy and dialogue more than make up for it.  I don't understand why they haven't made a follow-up to this yet as the ending looked ripe for it and the film did get plenty of good buzz in the horror community.

I give Dance of the Dead a "B+".