OfficeoftheDead

Office of the Dead (2009)

Life Corp is one of those “touchy feely” companies that wants to make a few bucks by helping everyone lead better lives. It is lead by Sir John Chris, who runs around spouting off nonsensical buzz words and phrases like “thinking outside the box” without really knowing what the hell he is talking about. When the latest invention at his company is handed to a couple of inept consultants they really manage to botch things up. Instead of helping people deal with their frustration and anger in a positive way, it turns them into zombies! It is up to the original team responsible for the invention to reverse the process and save the day, all while avoiding their undead office mates.

Okay so I don’t know if it was karma or just good luck. But a while back I was complaining at all the annoyingly bad independent zombie flicks that I’ve been forced to sit thru. It seemed for a while every aspiring filmmaker was making a zombie movie and most of them were pretty bad. But almost as soon as I uttered those words suddenly some pretty clever low budget zombie flicks started showing up in the mail. I would put Office of the Dead in that pile of interesting and fun zombie movies.

The biggest thing that Office of the Dead has going for it is the story. It is completely different from any other zombie movie that I’ve seen. That alone is a big plus. From the creation of the zombies to the setting I found the story to be creative and quite a bit of fun. Fans should be aware that the movie is played for laughs, but not in the over the top way that most horror comedies are. This one plays more towards the office crowd then the zombie crowd. There are some funny bits with the boss spouting off buzzwords, office hook ups, and the marketing department. As someone who actually works in a cube (we all have our day jobs you know!) I found it very funny. But I will warn you that if this isn’t your kind of humor then you probably aren’t going to “get” this movie. In fact the more I think about it I almost don’t even want to call this a zombie movie. The zombies exist in this movie more as a plot device to set up an absurd situation to then skewer what I’d call corporate culture.

The one thing that did sort of bug me about the movie is it’s lack of any real gore. Now I get what they were going for with the humor. I also understand that this movie makes nor real attempts to be a horror film. But I guess my point is if you are going to be anything “of the Dead” you sort of have to give us something. Even a single bite or scene of gutmunching would have been nice. That said the few digital effects that they do use (I suppose on their budget they really couldn’t set of the sprinklers in an office) isn’t that great. And as I’ve said when skewering other less enjoyable movies, better no effect then poorly done CGI.

I don’t know that Office of the Dead is going to appeal to horror fans. This is especially so if said fan sat down expecting a traditional zombie movie. But I found the movie to be well written and clever. I think that if you sit down with the right expectations that there is some fun to be had here. If you guys are interested in checking out Office of the Dead then head over to http://www.rsquaredfilms.com/office_dead/office_dead.html for more information on where to pick it up.

2 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer