Review No.102: Juan of the Dead

On to the next DVD from LoveFilm and uncharacteristically they've selected a title from my the high priority section of my list - the Cuban zombie film Juan of the Dead. As is often the norm Juan of the Dead is another spoof on the horror genre which in this case focuses on Juan a slacker who lives in Havana and spends his days sleeping with married women, experimenting with get-rich quick schemes or shooting the breeze with his horny best mate Lazaro. After people start getting bitten and turning into zombies the government tell the people that those going around biting are US funded dissidents which Juan and company call them throughout the film. Juan is reunited with his daughter Camila after saving her from her 'dissident' grandmother but who resents him for being negligent during her youth. Juan decides to capitalise on the incident by offering a service to kill peoples loved ones for a small fee so along with a small band of friends and Lazaro's son California they go about smashing and bashing their way through Havana. After a month they decide that things aren't getting any better so try to journey to the coast and try to travel to Miami however again the 'dissidents' get in their way however there is help from a priest none of them can understand. The final scene is fairly poignant as Juan finally realises his lot in life as the credits play out over a comic book epilogue involving his on-going battle.

I feel that all zombie comedy films will all now be compared to Shaun of the Dead and to an extent you could do this with Juan of the Dead as it focuses on slackers who have no idea what to do in a zombie attack so act in a comic way. Director Alejandro Brugues adds to the genre by having the characters constantly refer to the zombies as dissidents part because they've got no idea what they're trying to kill and partly because that's what the government has decided to tell the people of the Cuba. The sense I got from Juan and company is that they feel that very little has changed in a country that has gone through constant political overhaul but this is a problem that these men have distanced themselves from. I thought all the characters well just well-drawn enough to not be clichéd thanks to the relationships between them there are some lovely sweet scenes between Lazara and Juan in addition Camila's thawing feelings towards her father add to the overall feel of the film. The best thing about Juan is definitely the comic finishing off of the 'dissidents' esepcially the opening scene in which our two fumbling heroes have to kill off an old man who has been bitten in front of his wife. I don't think I've laughed this much at a film for ages though for me at times I felt the 'we kill you loved ones' plot was just a filler to bridge the gap before the opening zombie attack to the final escape there's no doubting that it was hilarious but on second thought I'm not sure how much those laughs fitted in with the rest of the film. There is certainly an uneven tone to Juan of the Dead however overall it is one of the funniest and most entertaining films that I have seen this year so as Juan says throughout he just needs a chance and I would say give him one by watching this film.

Verdict: An uneven film there's no denying that Juan of the Dead is one of the funniest films of the year so for that reason it gets 8/10