Cinepub

After the worldwide success of ‘Shaun of the Dead’ there was a horde of bad Zombie comedy films. I mean really, really terrible. It seemed that many had missed what made ‘Shaun of the Dead’ so special and that was a good mix of genuinely funny moments, genuinely touching moments and genuinely scary moments as well as a healthy respect and love for the source material. It wasn’t some shitty spoof film, it was a legitimate Zombie film in it’s own right which also happened to be very, very funny.

So with this thought in mind I sat down to watch ‘Boy Eats Girl’ an Irish Zombie comedy film from 2005, just one year after Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg had rocked the Zombie world. I got ready for the worse but was my trepidation warranted?

The basic story goes like this. Boy loves girl. Boy plans to ask girl out. Comical romantic misunderstanding due to girl’s douche bag father. Boy hangs self. Boy’s mother who works restoring old church discovers an ancient voodoo text and uses it to bring boy back to life. Mother doesn’t complete ritual correctly and boy begins to crave human flesh. Boy bites fellow student at big high school dance. Small scale Zombie Apocalypse ensues.

Yes, the big bad which leads to the Zombie uprising in this film is that most evil of monsters, unrequited love. Well, unrequited love combined with a mother’s love for a son. Either way you look it, love’s a cunt and should be avoided at all costs because love equals Zombies. It’s as much a fact of the Universe as gravity.

So this is gonna be a relatively short review because I’m not gonna do my big, jokey plot synopsis that I normally use to fill up most of the space because, honestly, this is one of those rare good Zombie comedies that followed ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and I recommend you see it. It’s not as good as ‘Shaun…’ that’d be ridiculous. Seriously, Shaun of the Dead is practically a perfect movie. But ‘Boy Eats Girl’ is nonetheless incredibly enjoyable.

It managed to combine the Voodoo Zombie origins of old with the plague based Zombies of new and it was fantastically entertaining in doing it. The lead character, Nathan, retains his human reasoning and rationality whilst the person he bites and those that subsequent Zombies bite become creatures not dissimilar from the Zombies from the ‘Dawn of the Dead’ remake. Yes, they run but I’ve pretty much made my peace with the Runners after ‘Dead Set’, ‘Zombieland’ and rewatching the previously mentioned Dawn remake.

Most importantly it manages to balance the humour, gore and character development pretty damn well. Again, not as well as ‘Shaun…’. Some of the effects are so obviously flimsy rubber, although that kinda adds to the charm of the flick, but at no time does it feel as though one or two elements of those three is obviously overshadowing the others as is so often the case with the bad Zombie comedies. (Normally comedy and gore overpowering character development). No, you genuinely care about the characters whilst laughing and being grossed out in all the right places. For example one girl turns as she’s giving guy a blowjob… Yeah, I think you understand the ramifications of that.

So yeah, ‘Boy Eats Girl’ one of those few gems that I’d hoped to uncover when I started Zombie Month. Hopefully there are more to come, though I still get the feeling there’s gonna be a lot of wading through shit to get there. Four pints out of five.

You can purchase ‘Boy Eats Girl’ from the Cinepub Amazon.co.uk store.

After the worldwide success of ‘Shaun of the Dead’ there was a horde of bad Zombie comedy films. I mean really, really terrible. It seemed that many had missed what made ‘Shaun of the Dead’ so special and that was a good mix of genuinely funny moments, genuinely touching moments and genuinely scary moments as well as a healthy respect and love for the source material. It wasn’t some shitty spoof film, it was a legitimate Zombie film in it’s own right which also happened to be very, very funny.

So with this thought in mind I sat down to watch ‘Boy Eats Girl’ an Irish Zombie comedy film from 2005, just one year after Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg had rocked the Zombie world. I got ready for the worse but was my trepidation warranted?

The basic story goes like this. Boy loves girl. Boy plans to ask girl out. Comical romantic misunderstanding due to girl’s douche bag father. Boy hangs self. Boy’s mother who works restoring old church discovers an ancient voodoo text and uses it to bring boy back to life. Mother doesn’t complete ritual correctly and boy begins to crave human flesh. Boy bites fellow student at big high school dance. Small scale Zombie Apocalypse ensues.

Yes, the big bad which leads to the Zombie uprising in this film is that most evil of monsters, unrequited love. Well, unrequited love combined with a mother’s love for a son. Either way you look it, love’s a cunt and should be avoided at all costs because love equals Zombies. It’s as much a fact of the Universe as gravity.

So this is gonna be a relatively short review because I’m not gonna do my big, jokey plot synopsis that I normally use to fill up most of the space because, honestly, this is one of those rare good Zombie comedies that followed ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and I recommend you see it. It’s not as good as ‘Shaun…’ that’d be ridiculous. Seriously, Shaun of the Dead is practically a perfect movie. But ‘Boy Eats Girl’ is nonetheless incredibly enjoyable.

It managed to combine the Voodoo Zombie origins of old with the plague based Zombies of new and it was fantastically entertaining in doing it. The lead character, Nathan, retains his human reasoning and rationality whilst the person he bites and those that subsequent Zombies bite become creatures not dissimilar from the Zombies from the ‘Dawn of the Dead’ remake. Yes, they run but I’ve pretty much made my peace with the Runners after ‘Dead Set’, ‘Zombieland’ and rewatching the previously mentioned Dawn remake.

Most importantly it manages to balance the humour, gore and character development pretty damn well. Again, not as well as ‘Shaun…’. Some of the effects are so obviously flimsy rubber, although that kinda adds to the charm of the flick, but at no time does it feel as though one or two elements of those three is obviously overshadowing the others as is so often the case with the bad Zombie comedies. (Normally comedy and gore overpowering character development). No, you genuinely care about the characters whilst laughing and being grossed out in all the right places. For example one girl turns as she’s giving guy a blowjob… Yeah, I think you understand the ramifications of that.

So yeah, ‘Boy Eats Girl’ one of those few gems that I’d hoped to uncover when I started Zombie Month. Hopefully there are more to come, though I still get the feeling there’s gonna be a lot of wading through shit to get there. Four pints out of five.

You can purchase ‘Boy Eats Girl’ from the Cinepub Amazon.co.uk store.