Undead or Alive: A Review of a Zombedy

Undead Or Alive was directed by Glasgow Phillips, who has been a staff writer for the television madness that is South Park. The movie stars James Denton, Chris Kattan, and Navi Rawat. The premise: a zombie western.

The plot, to get more specific, is about a couple of guys who after an altercation find themselves busting out of jail together. The duo go on the run from a Sheriff and posse that have been infected by a zombie that was also jailed for eating his family's brains. The duo of men meet up with the niece of the Indian Geronimo who as legend would have it created the "white man curse" that started the plague that is zombies. Movie watchers get to follows the trio as they run from the zombie posses and also for quite some time the antics of a preacher trapped in town by zombies after a hanging gone wrong.

This is a B-movie comedy, corny, slapstick, and just plain silly. It is not intelligent comedy. However, a B-movie zombie Western in and of itself is funny to think about and I laughed at least a few times. More importantly I never got bored enough to want to turn the DVD off. I may not have been laughing at every single gag, but I was entertained. It is all silly fun and even has a cute ending.

Gore: plenty of it. They edit the bloody scenes with quick flashes of the Indian Geronimo around a fire in an attempt I guess to make them more intense and yet at the same time not leaving viewers swimming fully in the blood. This approach I think caters enough to those who enjoy gory special effects and yet also keeps it from being too much for others to stomach. One moment in the movie involving a thirsty guy and a spittoon had me cringing just a bit.

The acting is good enough and the fact that this is meant to be of B-movie grade helps it along. Often times B-movies are loaded with sexual hijinks and I will note that this movie is void of that. There is one quick shot of some zombie boobs, but in that moment you're more likely to be looking at the spine sticking out of the woman's back.