With its modest UK backdrop and amusing interplay between ordinary, dim characters in the face of a zombie onslaught, BOY EATS GIRL inevitably echoes SHAUN OF THE DEAD, though it avoids the self-conscious genre-referencing that has become an increasingly wearying part of the modern horror comedy. A lot more fun than the last Irish zombie movie (the plodding DEAD MEAT), Stephen Bradley’s film – finally on U.S. DVD now almost two years after its British release – echoes past low-budget zombie flicks such as I ZOMBIE CHRONICLES OF PAIN in its sincere focus on one character’s descent into the realm of the undead. It also shows enough spark and invention to rise above the endless glut of Romero wannabes and post-DAWN OF THE DEAD remake cash ins.
David Leon is likeable as a handsome high school student, somewhat more sophisticated than his peers, whose idea of a chat up line is to ask : “Is there any chance I can see your tits?” He’s also madly in love with unavailable, long term friend Samantha Mumba. In a drunken stupor he accidentally hangs himself but luckily his Mum locates a book of Pagan trickery at the local church and uses it to bring her son back from the dead a la THE MONKEY’S PAW. Leon wakes up with no memory of his demise, though he’s notably stronger, no longer feels pain, has a hunger for human flesh and, much to her disgust, fails to get an erection even when faced with school slut Sara James’ substantial cleavage. While his mum tries to find a cure, Leon unwittingly initiates a zombie epidemic at the end of term disco.
Although relying too much on hackneyed musical stings and false scares to generate cheap jumps, Bradley has an infectious amount of fun with the premise, staging witty zombie attacks in a video store and confessional box while, en-route to the unashamedly romantic happy ending, taking the occasional original detour (rattlesnake venom turns out to be a cure for zombie-ism). Cute gore gags including high-heel eye gouging and a zombie blow-job alternate with engaging banter between a nicely drawn bunch of secondary characters. Particularly fun are Leon’s geeky pals (Tadhg Murphy, Laurence Kinlan), who are curious about his post-mortem powers (“No, I can’t fuckin’ fly!”) and have a stand-out comic sequence with James (“Doesn’t sunlight kill them?” “That’s vampires!” “There’s vampires too?!!!”).
The climax riffs on Peter Jackson’s peerless DEAD/ALIVE and delivers a rousing tractor massacre with enthusiastically depicted squished heads, exploding bodies and torn off faces. Mumba, as wooden here as in THE TIME MACHINE remake, isn’t much of an actress but the rest of the cast acquit themselves well. The make-up effects are very good and, although slight and unremarkable, BOY EATS GIRL is, at the very least, likeable and fun.
-Steven West
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
