HALLOWEEN HORROR DAYS ~ DAY 15: BURYING THE EX (2014)

Director Joe Dante has contributed greatly to the horror genre and cinema in general. He has given us such classics as the original PIRANHA, THE HOWLING, GREMLINS, THE BURBS, and many others. He is one of the great horror directors from the same era as John Carpenter, Wes Craven, and Tobe Hopper. Mr. Dante has had unique and signature touch with all the horror movies he has made. His sense of humor inevitably infects his films, and in a genre where humor is difficult to pull off, he does it masterfully. Expect to smile when you watch a film from Joe Dante.

His latest endeavor into the realms of horror is in fact a horror romance comedy. BURYING THE EX (see? There's even a joke in the title) is a little horror film that appeals to the romantic in goths and horror movie lovers everywhere. It's a romance movie for someone like me. If a romantic comedy is a "rom-com" then is a romantic horror a "Ro-Ho?" Anyway, it takes place in our world in a sub-culture of horror aficionados based in Las Angles. Sounds like a place for somebody as smitten with monsters and gore as myself. At first glance I'm reminded of the zombie comedy MY BOYFRIEND'S BACK. Remember that one?

THE PLOT

Max works in a year-round Halloween prop store playing a different horror movie in the background in every scene. His apartment is decorated in old horror movie posters, originals mind you, and other horror cinema memorabilia. He hates his boss and dreams of opening a similar store all his own. He's just your average guy, not ugly but not attractive either (kinda like me!). His girlfriend, Evelyn (Evil-Lyn), is a super hottie way beyond him. She's controlling and manipulative and not appreciative of anything horror related. Slowly Max has been working up the courage to dump her but every time he gets ready to do it he chickens out and says something completely different. He tries to work up the balls to do it again and instead asks her to move in.

Max returns from work one day and finds his entire apartment changed, his horror memorabilia gone, his highly valued posters folded and creased and stuffed in a drawer. "Oh God what have I done!" laments Max. One day while out getting ice cream with Evelyn, Max meets a quirky young woman named Olivia who is the perfect match for him, another lover of all things horror. Evelyn makes a scene and storms out. Max finally puts his foot down that he's going to dump Evelyn. The next day Evelyn is crossing the street to meet Max at the dog park, under the pretense that he has bought her a dog, when she is rundown in the street by a bus, killed on impact.

Months pass. He runs into Olivia again and the two of them begin seeing each other. Olivia starts to fall fast. While at work there is a weird shipment with something that looks strangely authentic and arcane. Max breaks it on accident and nothing happens, or so he thinks. When he gets home he finds Evelyn waiting for him... alive but not alive. Re-animated. Then Olivia knocks on the door. The girl of his dreams on one side of the door and the girl of his nightmares on the other side looking like she's jonesing to literally eat the first person to piss her off. What's a boy to do?

THE GOOD

This movie played to my heart. Young man in love with all things horror finds a young woman in love with all things horror and has to fight off psycho-zombie ex-girlfriend. It's like Joe Dante read my autobiography. Seriously, Max and I would be best buds if his character was real. And Alexandra Daddario is a horror lover's mermaid. Even Evelyn, played by Ashely Greene, is extremely hot, in a "gag-me-necro-I-don't-wanna-go-there-but-I-kinda-wanna-go-there" sorta way. I always liked her the best out of everyone in those sparkling vampire movies. And I have liked Ms. Daddario since seeing her previous horror films, BEREAVEMENT and TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D.

If I haven't expressed this enough, this is a horror movie for horror fans. There are references to all sorts of horror films in all sorts of ways, posters, movie marquees, name drops, and clips playing on the television. There are so many that if you made a drinking game out of it you'd be blacking out before the movie's over. It makes the movie so much fun because a lot of the references were so obscure it would take someone like me to get them and I didn't even get them all. Point is this movie has multiple levels of enjoyment.

THE BAD

There was a weird subplot with Max's half brother that I didn't care for. He was a sleazy ugly fat guy who scored with way hot chicks and used Max's apartment as his sex pad so when he ditched the girls the next day they wouldn't be able to find him. I think it was supposed to be funny but it didn't come across that way. Then there was some pretty bad acting on Ashley Greene's part and the progression of her character from re-animated bitch to cannibalistic zombie bitch took a little too long for me. It slowed the movie down. Also she was a total bitch throughout the whole thing but that was intentional.

THE VERDICT

It's a quaint little film and feels like it most of the time but it has enough heart and horror-love in it to take it beyond mere quaintness. The core of some of the great horror stories revolve around unrequited love. It's only natural that we get a horror film with love fulfilled. But it's not all romance. The zombie horror scenes deliver the goods and every fanboy of the genre wishes this was his story. The host of references to other films of the genre add a second level of fun and entertainment to the movie. And Ms. Daddario is as enchanting as ever. Plus Dick Miller makes his cameo appearance. It wouldn't be a Joe Dante film without him. Move over "Rom Com" cause it's time for the "Ho Ro."

Overall Ranking: 6 out of 10

Nude-O-Meter: 1 out of 10

The zombie in this film is named Evelyn and she is preventing her ex boyfriend from seeing other women... sounds kind of like the 1971 giallo thriller THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF THE GRAVE. I just now got that...