NinetyForChill dot Com - The Podcast: Mitchell Macabre at the "Dance of the Dead" (Part 2)

   

NinetyForChill.com: The Podcast

Episode 18: Mitchell Macabre at the "Dance of the Dead" (Part 2)

Read more: https://html.com/media/#ixzz6jIeBsAn5

Mitchell Whitt from the "Morbidly Macabre" podcast and I conclude our conversation about 2008's "Dance of the Dead". We talk about its strong and beyond appropriate gore effects, how it stacks up against other zombie comedies like "Fido" and "Dead Snow", and how we have to get the theater business, at least on the Champaign/Urbana level, ready to blow the minds of those who will coming back to Ebert Fest.

There are some tangents like all good podcast should have, and I was a little bit naughtier than I should have been when it came to explicit language. Fear not irresponsible parents. All of the words used on this finalized podcast have been featured on Public Broadcast Stations. Oh how I love the importing of British comedy. It is silly that it is a good thing for BBC America to have lost its way.

 

And I will say, it was a relevant weekend when it came to this podcast. Mitchell had just gotten married on Saturday (I am sure his registry on Amazon and Target have some items they could use that their guests did not claim.). Finding out about Mitchell's family living in Jacksonville lead to a New Jack story (Rest in Peace). And to further display my knowledge of low-budget zombie movies, I revisited "Last Rites of the Dead" a.k.a. "Zombies Anonymous".

I also got to listen to the latest "Morbidly Macabre" episode about the Columbine School Shooting. If you really want to know what makes Mitchell tick, it is a must listen. As for the history of the topic, they nail down all the important details while walking a dangerous line of when or not empathy may have been warranted for the two boys.

You really get to know the two of us, me on deeper level, and our love for cinema. And we share our depression about The Art Theater no longer being in operation. If you want to suggest some means to resolve this issue or be a podcast guest (You just need a sub 100-minute movie as this episode shows.) send an email to russthebus07@gmail.com.

And for those who recall "The Student of the Game", there is a bit of wrestling talked about at the end of the cast. If you still are not aware of my thoughts about Chris Benoit and the Hart family tragedies, this is your opportunity. I wonder if it helps explain my sympathy towards certain wrestlers who seem to be persona non grata when there are plenty of other wrestlers who inspire questions who still get to make a living. That will be a blog for another time on MainEventOfTheDead.com.

A guest has been lined up for next week's episode, tentatively about the sub 100-minute filmography of Adam Sandler. Was it all down hill from "Punch Drunk Love" to "Uncut Gems"? We will find out. Thanks for visiting.

NinetyForChill dot Com - The Podcast: Mitchell Macabre at the "Dance of the Dead" (Part 1)

  Films Researched for this Episode: Dance of the Dead (2008) and Isle of Dogs (2010).

Dance of the Dead DVD - Ebay (rectus72)

NinetyForChill.com: The Podcast

Episode 17: Mitchell Macabre at the "Dance of the Dead" (Part 1)

Read more: https://html.com/media/#ixzz6jIeBsAn5

A normal episode was promised this week, but 2 hours and 40 minutes later, we have arrived at our first two-part podcast. Ironic since this was the first episode that was going to be dedicated solely to one feature, in this case 2008's "Dance of the Dead".

Mitchell Whitt from the "Morbidly Macabre" podcast found that he was not alone when it came to the appreciation of "Dance of the Dead", a Ghost House Underground feature that was directed by Gregg Bishop ("The Other Side" and "V/H/S Viral") and written by Joe Ballarini ("A Babysitter's Guide to Monster Hunting"). Ghost House Pictures was founded by "Evil Dead" and "Spider-Man" director Sam Raimi and his producer Robert Tapert, so it was only natural to be drawn to a feature their money was behind with humor and ridiculous zombies to fight.

 

This led to a conversation that explores both of our experiences in high school. We discuss the concepts of: how prom really affects teenagers, the importance of trauma to really force us to grow up, and how we both ended up at one point or another in blue shirts with yellow tags. "Dance of the Dead" features characters that reminds all white kids how great it is to be done with public education.

This is a movie podcast, so we were wise enough to talk about the movies that made us like "Fight Club", "Choke", and the Coen Brothers. All of this did led to a conversation about which film of Joel and Ethan was number one in their filmography.

You really get to know the two of us, me on deeper level, and our love for cinema. And we share our depression about The Art Theater no longer being in operation. If you want to suggest some means to resolve this issue or be a podcast guest (You just need a sub 100-minute movie as this episode shows.) send an email to russthebus07@gmail.com.

We will conclude this conversation next week. I hope we keep maintain interest till then. Thanks.

Gravedigger from Dance of the Dead by  tintallin

Dance of the Dead: For those who thought "Return of the Living Dead" was too cheesy

Those Red Box DVD kiosks outside grocery stores and truck stops have to do better when describing their offerings. I cannot remember them mentioning that Ghost House Underground’s "Dance of the Dead" was a comedy, and with so many clever gimmick zombie flicks dropping the ball in terms of capitalizing on the humor of the walking dead (on a plane, in a prison, in a mall circa 2004, etc.), it is important to tell potential viewers that someone has released a refined version of the original "Return of the Living Dead". No, Dance does not have the neon red pubic hair of the cult classic, but it makes up for that by doing everything else the RotLD better.

It seems like it should be common sense not to build a nuclear power plant next to a cemetery, but in a predominantly white community where the son of the police chief is an aspiring backyard wrestler, this idea’s downside can be overlooked. The cemetery’s custodian has been able to keep the reanimated corpse problem under wraps, but one night the high school’s science fiction club just has to give their P.K.E. meter a try, and the recently departed decide that they have to take some kind of action against these meddling kids.

Not content with just terrorizing the geeks, and unable to ignore their hunger, the undead decide to treat the town as a buffet, and the local high school’s prom is the dessert table. Now it is up to a slacker, a cheerleader, the class vice president, the yarder and the nerds to take their town back, and prevent too many memorial pages from taking up space in the yearbook.

Dance of the Dead is a pretty down to Earth zombie feature. The story is very linear, so no one will get lost, and the characters are of the same archetypes that the audience cheered for in the John Hughes and "American Pie" eras of high school comedies. Nothing about the movie is very foreign or intellectually deep, and comes across as more of a PG-13 comic book movie than a horror film. Thankfully, the messiness that comes along with zombies prevents the film from taking itself too seriously and more importantly tiresome.

There is not much depth to the characters, and since this film is not trying to present a message about society (I think we have all grown past the nuclear scare nonsense that Mr. Burns is the mascot for), there does not need to be. If there was, this film would drag along and forget about the necessities of a zombie comedy. A gut-busting scene that is too intense for R rated zombie dramas, heroes who have fun dispatching the flesh eaters, gore that is reminiscent to the 80's movies, and hot zombie-on-zombie action. If there is any problem with the story, it is that the characters seem callous at times because they do not take much time to mourn, but that would waste time in a 95 minute film that is determined to never slow down.

Dance of the Dead is one of those great scripts that just needed to be shot. As long as the effort put behind the gore and the actors just care enough, it should be entertaining. Perhaps if it had a great director and budget behind it, it would have the potential to be as fun as "Zombieland", but then it may have also lost the charm of being an excellent B-Movie in an overly A-Movie world.

hellhorror.com