The Revenant (2009)

The Revenant (R)

"Roommates of the Dead"

Humor/Gore fans rejoice because experienced SFX man Kerry Prior has written and directed the best intelligent bromance horror flick since Shaun of the Dead. Shot in and around Hollywood (on an obviously low budget), the film features great practical and CGI effects and some wildly humorous performances, particularly the friendship between Chris Wylde and David Anders (Alias). Shot and killed in the Middle East war, Bart (Anders) wakes up in his grave, and asks his best friend Joey (Wylde) for help. They find out being undead isn’t like it is in the movies and begin a nightly rampage in search of human blood through the neon midnight streets of Hollyweird. The situations are snappy, the ideas are fresh and smart, and the cast and crew are young and willing to throw it all on the canvas and see what sticks. Unfortunately some of what’s left clinging there isn’t pretty. Racial stereotypes are a played up to an uncomfortable degree sometimes, the female roles are empty and obviously underwritten (however, Jacy King shines and makes the best of her few scenes as the hippy nurse Matty), it suffers from “look how cool we are” just a little too long (it could also have about 5-10 minutes of fat trimmed from its runtime without pain) and quite a few of the green screen effects simply fell off the ugly “SyFy original” movie of the week. The big shoot-out that ends this film in particular has glaringly bad compositing and rush-it-out-the-door decisions that are wince inducing. But these few flaws do not detract from the incredibly entertaining and humor-filled pearl that is The Revenant, especially considering its low-budget indie-film roots, the obvious zeal and camaraderie of the cast, and the quality work of the writer/ director who put it all together piece by dismembered piece.

7 throat massagers out of 10 (GOOD)