Starring: Tim Ogletree, Joey Oglesby, and Dave Sheridan
Directed By: Scott Dow
Rated: R
Running Time: 88 minutes
ARC Entertainment
Our Score 1 out of 5 Stars
“The Walking Deceased” is the brain dead version of “Shaun of the Dead” or “Zombieland”. But I may want to be careful because uttering such clever comedy movies in the same sentence as “The Walking Deceased” could be considered an egregious statement, punishable by death, in some circles. Those circles would be horrified to learn that the creators of “The Walking Deceased” think it’s Kosher to lampoon those two treasured movies. I could only imagine the different forms of medieval torture they believe the creators should endure.
If you have more than the few singular brain cells the films creators had, you can piece together from the title that this movie sets its unfunny comedic sights on the popular AMC TV show, “The Walking Dead”. While the movie starts out as a terrible spoof of the show, it slowly transcends into a dumpster fire with generic juvenile humor. They hope you’ll laugh at the mere sights of breasts or butts. I’m pretty sure better jokes have been told on school playgrounds and better scripts have been written by those in a coma.
The script follows a rag tag group, compromised of different pot shots at characters from popular pop-culture movies and TV shows of the past decade. Once they all meet up, they move from one poorly built comedic set-up to another cheaply designed set piece.
Among this sad bunch of actors is Dave Sheridan, who’s had his fair share of parody and horror movies roles. He plays Sheriff Lincoln, and I mention him only because Sheridan really tries to sell his goofy character and he seems to be the only one with comedic chops. Everyone else seems content with falling back on predictable physical comedy, while others wait for their counterpart to finally say something remotely humorous. Sheridan is by no means an A-lister, but he’s joined by a group of unknowns, playing characters that will only seem familiar if you’re a fan of AMC’s smash hit.
When the movie isn’t finding a strip club during the zombie Apocalypse funny, they’re thinking that they’ll laugh at their Mad Libs word play with character names. This movie also isn’t short of jokes that men with low self-esteems, who spend their free time attacking people they don’t know online, funny. There’s also the plethora of jabs at the “Walking Dead” story arc. So even if you aren’t a general viewer of the AMC show, it’s OK. Even the people who understand what’s being ridiculed can join you in not laughing.
If “A Haunted House” and “Meet the Spartans” are considered the last fleeting breathes from the dying corpse of parody movies, then “Walking Deceased” should be considered one of the final stages of decomposition. If you want some chuckles and fun with your zombie movies, you can never go wrong with a rewatch of “Shaun of the Dead” or simply finding your local repertory theater and hoping that they will be showing “Return of the Living Dead”. If this movie somehow winds up in your hands. Burn it.