Undead or Alive

Introduction

The tone for Undead or Alive is set immediately when a woman berates her husband for drinking 'the Devil's juice' only to realise that he is actually biting the head off a chicken. The man, clearly a zombie, attacks the family home by crashing into a window only to receive a freshly baked pie in the face which causes him to stumble, put his foot in a bucket and then stand on a rake which springs up and hits him square in the genitals.

From there we go to the town's tavern where Elmer Winslow and Luke Budd get acquainted by having a fight over the bar's dancer which earns them a stay in jail courtesy of the corrupt Sheriff Claypool. Breaking out when his inept deputy falls asleep, they leave the zombie in the next cell and flee Dry Gulch.

On the run - Winslow is a deserter from the Union Army - they run into a feisty Apache, Sue (short for Susan, she explains, not Sioux) who strips them naked and takes them prisoner before she realises that, with the zombies and authorities (and zombie authorities) after them, they're better together. Explaining that what's happening is the 'White Man's Curse' concocted by her ancestor Geronimo, they must dodge the undead and see if anything happens of the burgeoning romance between Sue and lovelorn Luke.

Video

A terrifically sharp transfer of a very well shot film. In the commentary, director Glasgow Phillips reveals that they shot in a town with a purpose build fort and frontier town that had previously been used as filming locations and they are great sets which Phillips uses well. The exterior shots are splendid, with some lovely panoramic views of the New Mexico vistas.

Choosing to splash out some of their limited budget on renowned special makeup artists District 13 paid dividends with brilliant zombie effects.

Audio

The DD5.1 track is very clear with no problems hearing the dialogue correctly and good use of the surrounds, creating tension when need be.

Extra Features

The commentary with Glasgow Phillips and stars James Denton, Chris Kattan and Navi Rawat is bigger on laughs than information, whilst they do talk about stunts, locations and shooting, they have a better time recording the commentary than I did listening to them.

The two featurettes are fronted by Phillips in an editing/mixing booth and complement each other quite well, covering just about every element of the production process but in a slightly brief fashion - it's not exactly going to rival the LOTR box sets in terms of detail!

Conclusion

Mixing horror and comedy successfully is very hard to do as you have to have elements that scare whilst not neglecting the laughs. Some go more for the horror with some laughs whilst others are light hearted with elements of horror - this fits in the latter category. Packed with slapstick violence and over-the-top physical humour, Undead or Alive is also very wittily written - Glasgow Phillips' claim to fame is working as a writer on Season 6 of South Park and he's a talented writer. His direction is solid and it doesn't look as if he tried hard, which is generally a good thing and he used the three main actors well, playing to their strengths and had good assistance from the supporting cast, all of whom acquit themselves well.

I really enjoyed watching this; it's one of the better horror comedies that I have come across lately and the mix of Western and zombie film works very well. There is plenty of gore and laughs, so much for genre fans to like here; it may even, like Shaun of the Dead, have crossover appeal.