While many masters of horror have become irrelevant, Gremlins director Joe Dante has continued to stay active, and even delivered the impressive children’s genre film, The Hole, back in 2009 (released in 2012).

I was such a big fan of The Hole that it reinvigorated my love for Dante, who also directed The ‘Burbs, Innerspace, Explorers ,The Howling and even Piranha. One thing becomes apparent when looking over his filmography: he knows how to make really fun movies.

Dante aimed at a younger crowd with The Hole, while his forthcoming Burying the Ex is targeted at teen horror fans.

Burying the Ex follows Max (Anton Yelchin), a young man who can’t connect with his annoyingly “green” girlfriend, Evelyn (Ashley Greene). Just before he can break up with Evelyn, she’s hit by a bus and dies. Post funeral, Max falls for another girl, Olivia (Texas Chainsaw 3D‘s Alexandra Daddario), who shares many of the same interests. But, Evelyn rises from the grave and is set on spending the rest of eternity with Max, unbeknownst to her that he was just about to dump her.

One bizarre attribute to Dante’s quasi-zombie comedy is that it lives inside a Los Angeles horror hipster bubble. The world in which Max, Olivia and Evelyn exist is one that I’m quite familiar with, but the rest of the country hasn’t experience. It comes off weirdly expositional, as the script by Alan Trezza constantly feels the need to reference real landmarks (i.e. the New Beverly Cinema and Hollywood Forever Cemetery) as if it would add some realism to the film. Instead, it comes off distracting and makes the actors sound stage-y.

Furthering the problem is that Burying the Ex is a bit too talky, and feels bloated. Max’s grievances become whiney and annoying. And watching Olivia beg for his affection is tiring and slightly misogynistic. It’s one of those movies that makes you cringe with each and every misstep, yet you continually hope for the best.

But the best isn’t good enough. Once shit hits the fan it fails to deliver on its promise of being a horror film, hammering in one good kill (see above) that feels squandered by the budget. Frankly, Burying the Ex feels like a made-for-tv* romantic drama with a horror subplot stuffed jammed in.

Even though Burying the Ex shambles through the motions like an actual zombie, it inherently has a good spirit and is trying so desperately to entertain. And that’s more than can say about a lot of other horror films…

*The editing looks like it was cut for television (there were bizarre transitions that set the stage for a commercial break).