 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: Juan de los Muertos / Juan of the Dead • Year: 2011 • Country: Spain, Cuba • Director: Alejandro Brugués • Main cast: Alexis Díaz de Villegas, Jorge Molina, Andros Perugorría • Runtime: 92 minutes • Production company: La Zanfoña Producciones, Producciones de la 5ta Avenida TRAILER |
Oh, zombies. Who doesn’t love zombies? For many people, one of the favorite creatures in (not only) horror movies. Maybe their success resides in the fact that they were once humans, they were once your neighbour, your family, your couple or your enemy. Or maybe it is because you can become a zombie in so different ways: by mutation, alien intervention, human made chemicals, bitten by a wicked creature, being possessed by a demon or just because. Yes, a flexible creature with unlimited backgrounds. And it’s because of these wide bunch of possibilities that the genre of zombie movies has been over exploited. Is there anything left to invent? Maybe, but we haven’t seen originality in zombie movies for a while.
The movie we have in hands today belongs to one of the few zombie movies that you can save from dying in the well of boredom by reiteration. Because they play the card of mixing a classic zombie survival movie with lots of humor and the result works fine.
A group of low lives try to survive by cheating, tricking and doing some small illegal bussiness in Havana, Cuba. But their no-future fucked up equilibrium gets broken when a plague of zombies take over their island. And then is when their neighbours, family, loved ones and even enemies turn into flesh eating crazed animals. But their latin gen is stronger than common sense and Juan and his misserable friends have the great idea of turning that outbreak into a profitable business: they will charge the living for getting rid of their dead ones. With the catchy slogan “we kill your beloved ones”, they start to build an empire of blood and guts while they see their homeland turn into a desert of death.
The movie is quite funny and the characters are simple, but you get sympathy for them and their mediocre life. Lots of easy jokes, sex jokes, political jokes, but always serving the mission of the movie: to make you laugh in the middle of a slaughter fest. The good thing is that they deliver you what is promised, the fun and action. But it’s also a problem when there is nothing more behind that.
The direction and acting serve well the porpuse of the film, as well as the visual effects. Simple but effective, nothing more than entertainment. The editing, script and tempo of the movie is smart enough so you don’t fall into boredom at any point. After all, this is the kind of pop corn party movie to watch with your friends and have a laugh. And it works well like that.
So I encourage you to watch it. Your life won’t change into better or worse after seeing this movie, but at least you will have a good time and you will be able to say “well, I already saw a cuban zombie movie”. Are there zombie movies made in Cuba? Well, at least there is one, and it’s a nice one.
RATE: 6/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1838571
