REVIEW: Drank of the Dead

On October 30th, 2010, a group of friends held a house party. The idea was to write, stage and shoot a zombie movie in one gruesome night. The following is the result of that absurd process.

What could you possibly think that a movie called Drank of the Dead is about? I don’t think that you will ever guess that it’s about a gun totin’, trigger happy, non-nonsense character named Bambo, right? Well, this movie is shot in documentary style and Bambo, while being interviewed, tells us that he was invited to a party and he brought some Grape Drank. It turns out that white people aren’t immune to the powers of Grape Drank, but because Bambo is black he doesn’t get infected, and soon all the white people at the party start turning into zombies and it’s up to Bambo to stop them from before things get out of hand. I’ll state this right off the bat… this was one of the best times I had watching a zombie short.

Bambo is such a wickedly funny, stereotype that I couldn’t take my eyes off of the screen. He narrates, throughout the movie, what he does and why he did the things he did… oh and what he would do to some of the female zombies if they weren’t dead. He calls the zombies “crackers,” he takes pride and arousal from shooting off the heads of the zombies and as absurd as the movie gets with zombie killing… Bambo just passes it all off as normal. Even after seeing a zombie girl smear blood over his lips like lipstick, he just shrugs and blows her brains out. I have never seen such a character his fascinating since Tallahassee from Zombieland. There is one scene where a zombie has the byproduct of eating too much fried chicken so he farts and since Bambo knows this feeling all to well… he decides to ignite the gas sending the zombie off in flames. That’s another funny thing about Bambo, he always tries to relate back to a past experience he has.

Even in the beginning of the movie, where we are introduced to all the frat boys at the party, it gets so absurd. Hearing exaggerated fist-pounding sound effects over drunken frat boy conversations wasn’t the only thing worth laughing at but there are scenes showing Bambo and the others literally pouring Grape Drank all over themselves in attempt to drink it. It’s such a brilliant use of hyperbole.

Additionally, the zombie effects were great and the makeup was an act all to itself. To put it simply, the production was very well organized and well made and even the CGI blood and gunshots looked well. This movie is very stereotyped and it blatantly states that white people can’t handle the Grape Drank but black people are just born with the immunity. It’s such an interesting twist on the zombie mythology that begs to be explored. With Bambo being the most fascinating zombie killer and being immune to the infection, I want to see more of him. I think he director has a character that is begging to be shown again… I want a feature length movie on Bambo.

If you enjoyed the soundtrack, click here to find it.