by: AthenaY
Posted on 02.17.10 in All Horror Films > Comedy > Cult/Erotic > Zombie
Release Date: 2004

Zombie Honeymoon has the distinction of being, as far as I can tell, the only zombie flick based on a true story.  No, the shambling undead have not really risen from the sea to leave a gory trail in the sands of the Jersey Shore.  However, the overwhelming emotions of young love cut short by unexpected tragic loss is what drove director Dave Gebroe to tell this story.  The lead characters are based on his sister and his brother-in-law– the latter who drowned in a surfing accident shortly after their wedding.  The strong, very real depiction of a woman forced to cope with her husband’s death (or “undeath” as the case may be) adds a sense of raw emotion that’s very unique to the zombie genre.

The movie opens by introducing the freshly married Denise (Tracy Coogan) and Danny (Graham Sibley) as they joyfully skip away from the wedding chapel, eager to enter the honeymoon stage of their marriage.  The two lead actors have real chemistry.  Coogan’s performance is exuberant, at times downright giddy. This nicely complements the energy of Sibley as Danny– a more mellow, laid-back vegetarian surfer type.  Unfortunately, their blissful honeymoon is interrupted by an unwelcome, undead guest.

While relaxing on the beach, what should stagger out of the waves but an honest-to-goodness zombie. (You can’t have a movie called Zombie Honeymoon without one!)  Clad in a wetsuit, covered from head to toe in seaweed, the staggering zombie catches Danny unaware.  It lurches over, grabs him violently and spews a foul, viscous brown liquid into his face and mouth.  The precise nature of Danny’s death is left a bit vague.  Amidst the chaos, the zombie disappears, leaving a dying Danny and his hysterical wife on the beach.  Cut to the hospital:  Doctors make fervent resuscitation attempts and fail.  Just as Denise is about to resign herself to widowhood, the miraculous happens.  Danny’s eyelids flutter open and, much to everyone’s astonishment, he has recovered from his ten minute “death”.  The shocked doctor warns them that Danny will need time to readjust.  This turns out to be the understatement to end all understatements.

For the first day, Danny seems okay. He and Denise make vows to live for the present and celebrate his rebirth with lots of passionate, rough sex.  The only sign that anything is at all out of the ordinary is Danny’s flaking skin.  “Baby, you need a better sunscreen,” Denise chides him.

Danny’s condition rapidly deteriorates after that.  The former vegetarian goes on meat eating binges.  His memory is shaky and his skin takes on a deathly pale pallor.  When Denise finds him crouched in the bathtub gnawing on the entrails of a bloody corpse, the truth sinks in– this is not the man she married.  She’ll have to decide whether to stay with him through better or worse and whether their wedding vows still apply:  “‘Til death do us part.”

Zombie Honeymoon does not fit into a typical genre mold.  Zombie purists may be put off by the fact that the movie is really about only one zombie– who at first seems more like a simple cannibal– and the origins of his condition are extraordinarily vague.  In fact, Zombie Honeymoon is more about Denise and Danny’s relationship than the threat of brain-devouring undead causing carnage and mayhem.  There’s blood and gore galore, with a bit of female nudity sprinkled in for good measure.  It’s interesting that some of the more romantic and sexually charged scenes occur after Danny has been zombified but before either of them fully realize it.  Many zombie films focus on a large group of zombies as a monstrous enemy, yet tend to forget that zombies were people once, too.

Zombie Honeymoon may be low-budget, with some uneven acting and sound editing issues, but the meat of the story– how a couple deals with unexpected loss of humanity– is very novel indeed.  There’s also enough off-beat dark humor to classify Zombie Honeymoon as a dark comedy.  Classic lines include gems like: “I guess vegetarians don’t make very good cannibals, do they?”

Even fans of romance movies can find something to like in Zombie Honeymoon, assuming they aren’t too disturbed by the gratuitous gore.  Zombie Honeymoon truly does have something for everyone.

• ★★★★★

  Acting:

• ★★★★★

  Blood:

• ★★★★★

  Violence:

• ★★★★★

  Partying:

• ★★★★★

  Language:

• ★★★★★

  Humor:

• ★★★★★

  Predictable:

• ★★★★★

  Girls:

• ★★★★★

  Gore:

• ★★★★★

  Sexuality:

• ★★★★★

  Torture:

• ★★★★★

  Overall:

I can't believe i still have my copy of this film! You are right, you can't look at this film like a zombie flick. It's not necessarily a love story either. True, our lovers do seem like a "true" couple, but their emotions aren't ever translated well enough so that the audience will be sucked into the films main plot design. So what's next? The humor? Sure, it's there, and it is clever, but I couldn't help but think that Zombie Honeymoon was a very pointless film. It can be cute, funny, and creative, but for this viewer, it never really drew me in.