American Zombie

The best zombie movies are a commentary on human nature and society.  Films like Night of the Living Dead are great because they comment on how personality and human character are actually far more destructive than any horde of monsters.  Land of the Dead commented on the tendancy of the rich and strong to exploit the poor and weak.  There is a long tradition of zombie movies as a tool for social commentary.

American Zombie tries way to hard to take this trend even further.   American Zombie starts smoothly with an interesting plot.  It follows a film group doing a documenary on zombies.   This is an interesting idea and at first it was quite engaging, but as the film drags into its second hour of annoyingly bland and all too human zombies droning on about their art and the difficulties of their lives the interest fades and boredom settles in.  In its attempt to be socially relevant,  American Zombie just put me to sleep.  All the things that make zombie films wonderful,  the fear, the suspense, the tension, the blood and guts are all absent and  if you doze off and wake-up you might think for a minute that you were watching a documentary on major depressive disorder.  All the zombies are depressed and depressing.

This is not the worst zombie movie I've ever seen, but it is the most unzombie like zombie movie I've ever seen.  I would avoid this one and rent Dead Alive instead.