Screening at this year’s Toronto After Dark Film Festival.
If you open an encyclopedia of film and search for “tired genre,” you will undoubtedly find a brief statement on horror-comedies featuring zombies. These aren’t inherently bad movies by any means; we’ve just seen too damn many of them. After Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland, what else could the genre possibly present to us that contains at least an ounce of quality and originality? The answer can be found in Kyle Rankin’s unexpected gem of a movie, Night of the Living Deb, which shows us just how far an independent production can go with a bit of wit and ingenuity.
The story follows the loveably weird Deb, played by an exasperatingly charismatic Maria Thayer, in an apocalyptic misadventure with her one-night-stand Ryan, played by Michael Cassidy, after they wake to a zombie outbreak. Forced to work together, they travel to meet up with their loved ones, hoping to avoid the mysterious virus while they bond over copious (but never annoying, unless they’re meant to be) pop-culture jokes and some grisly entertaining slapstick violence. There are also some interesting side characters that give the movie a peculiar charm, not to mention the always entertaining Ray Wise in a special appearance.
Although the script is witty and fun, Thayer really makes the difference in this film. Deb is a fascinatingly charming main character, an “adorable ginger,” as other characters put it, despite her numerous believable flaws. Not only does this film deliver on gore and humor, but we also get a generous amount of character development and a surprisingly well-executed romantic arc. Rom-Zom-Com’s aren’t anything new, but the execution here makes Night of the Living Deb stand out as a horror-comedy with heart and brains.
Rankin’s direction was also pretty solid, emphasizing emotional moments whilst also keeping things upbeat enough to maintain the laughs. Even though the film goes through some extreme transitions between tender character moments and chilling violence, no scene ever feels out of place, resulting in a movie that knows how to use its advantages. Though the film didn’t have the largest of budgets, the overall quality here is extremely high, and you can tell that no resource was wasted during production.
The film does sport a standard indie soundtrack, but almost every song contributed to either mood or entertainment, so I can’t consider that a fault. The music may not be as memorable as the other benchmark movies of the genre, but it certainly gets the job done, and you can’t help but feel while watching that this is the soundtrack going on in Deb’s mind while she goes through her ordeal.
I know that a lot of people will be put off by the focus on quirky characters and romance instead of an all-out hardcore gore-fest, but the way I see it, that just cements Night of the Living Deb as one of, if not the best recent addition to a genre previously thought to be deader than the zombies that populate it. If you like either rom-coms or zombie movies, you should definitely give this a watch, it’s one of the Toronto After Dark Film Festival’s best offerings to date.
