Dead Shack

Roger (Donavon Stinson) is the patriarch of the amusingly dysfunctional Slade family. A single dad who act as he is still in his adolescence. He was a self-centered girlfriend (Valerie Tian) who loves the bottle more than him. He takes them all on vacation to the cheapest cabin he can find on Craig's List. Jason (Matthew Nelson-Mahood) a dweeb friend of son Colin (Gabriel LaBelle ) joins the group. He is shy and likes daughter Summer (Lizzie Boys). The cabin they rent is an area of missing people and we know that they are being fed to zombies by Lauren Holly as they are her family. We have no idea how they got that way, only that Lauren wears riot gear and a welders mask when she is around them. Of course, their paths comically cross. This is a comedy-horror that I loved. The dialogue and characters were a joy to watch. Granted there were a few scenes that could have been done better and to be honest I was not aware of "Go-Fish" foreplay. It is such a thing. My only question was how does one run around at night with a welders' mask and dark lens? Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity. Subtitles on Blu-ray in both English and Spanish.

I did not watch the trailer I just watch the movie so I was surprised. The acting is pretty good along with the special effects and makeup. It was a little slow at the start but I was not bored with this movie. I would definitely recommend you watch this.

Neighbor has zombies. Annoying family (with guests) vacation next door. Largely what happens is that annoying characters make dumb choices and get involved with the neighbor zombie keeper. There is no reason the neighbor keeps the zombies (past the inital three that are her family--so why does she keep random others?!) isn't even addressed or how the zombies started. The rest of the characters are loud, rude, and awkward. And poorly acted. The one character who isn't all that is so meek and timid that he is just as annoying as the others (just on the opposite end of the dichtomy). Wouldnt have cared who survived. Production was good and gory, hence the 4.

A man runs into the night as a woman clad head to toe in body armor gives chase. She has a zombie on a leash that she uses to kill the man. And boom - I'm in as Dead Shack begins. Jason is meeting up with his friend Colin's family - sister Summer, dad Roger and dad's new girlfriend Lisa (Valerie Tian, Juno) - to stay in a cabin in the woods that they got off Craig's List for way too cheap. Everyone gets bored quickly and heads out for a hike, where they see the sheer lunacy going on inside the home of the neighbor we saw earlier. She's played by Lauren Holly (Dumb and Dumber) and soon, she's looking to take out the family and/or add them to her family of zombies. Writer/director Peter Ricq puts together a nice little Sam Raimi tribute here - complete with the she-bitch line getting lifted. There are plenty of practical effects and no shortage of gore. Ricq's band The Humans feature prominently on the soundtrack, too. It's a quick watch that I enjoyed. It won't change your life, but it's perfect for an entertaining evening. My favorite part was the costume design and poster look - which got me to watch this in the first place!

DEAD SHACK is another horror B-movie set in the usual cabin in the woods. This one's Canadian and seems to have been made as a cross between TURBO KID (the goofy style, the costumes) and THE EVIL DEAD (the setting, the supernatural beings). It's dark and dingy and saddled with some of the most annoying protagonist characters in a movie, with stupid and obnoxious teenager characters swapping idiotic 'teen' dialogue that's an offense to hear. Thankfully, after a while the plot spurs into motion and there's a lot of gory incident to take your mind off the predictability of it all, although it pales in comparison to the new EVIL DEAD flick as well as films like WITHER, and of course the original classics.

What does one get with an ensemble of goofy, loveable characters, fun one liners at every turn, and everybody's favorite hottie from "Dumb and Dumber"? ... One hour and twenty minutes of twistedly funny zombie horror! "Dead Shack" is definitely more on the B-list side of horror (as most horror comedies are), but in a campy, entertaining kinda way. Shot with good quality, decent effects that match the tone of the film, and acting that is generally much better than your average straight to DVD Redbox horror movie. This one kept me laughing from start to finish. Fans of the classic "Tucker & Dale vs. Evil" should definitely have a fun time with "Dead Shack".

Let's clear the air right now – Dead Shack is neither a B52's hit song nor is it a documentary fictionalizing the death of a famous Los Angeles Lakers center. Or at least it isn't in this iteration. Directed by Peter Ricq, Dead Shack is a horror/comedy about a family who crosses paths with a murderous neighbor who lures others to her home with intention of feeding them to her zombie family. Like I wrote: horror/comedy. We meet our main characters as they set out on a family vacation. Roger (Donavon Stitson) is the father and adult of the group. Along for the ride is his new girlfriend Lisa (Valerie Tian) kids Summer (Lizzie Boys) and Colin (Gabriel LaBelle) and neighbor Jason (Matthew Nelson-Mahood). Roger is a drinker, a joker and father that tries too hard to bond with his teenage children. He wants to be the cool-adult and throws his sarcastic wit aloud both to amuse himself and others. His children are very independent. Thanks to Roger's buffoonery they have to be. When they find themselves wandering from the vacation cabin they come across a neighbor worthy of their spying eyes. But when they witness the neighbor drug two strangers and then feed them to some zombie-like characters kept liked rabid pets, the kids grow up fast. They rush back to their father who is both drunk and drugged. Their story of the neighbors cannibalism is met with skepticism and drunken wonder by Roger whose alcoholic courage and hazed attempt to be there for his kids gets him motivated to investigate the claims. It's when they enter the neighbor's house that the film sways from being a full on comedy and lands itself dab smack into the horror/thriller genre. What ensures next is barrage of equal violence and humor that propels Dead Shack to the height of its crowd pleasing wonderfulness. The kids get all Mad-Maxed up in gear and weaponry created with found parts. Their goal it to save the day and leave with the same amount of family members that began the odyssey (well, maybe not Lisa). Axes and sharp objects swing and stick, blood both red and black are spilled, zombies are both killed and created. As an audience our job is to sit back and enjoy the ride and if you don't look too deep into the shallowness of the story, the ride is a fun one. We enjoyed the first half better than last. Stitson's lines land with precision and the dynamic of the group would be something we would have liked to see more. There are some great lines in Dead Shack ("When the blood goes black there's no going back"), so when the film shifts to more of a zombie tale, it falters a bit to the finish line. Our criticism is hardly a reason not to recommend Dead Shack. The crowd assembled at the screening during the Toronto After Dark Film Festival laughed and cheered in all the right spots. So even through the few flaws, it was clearly a crowd pleaser. And not a B52's song.

This film is much better than it has any right to be and that all comes from writing and characterisation. They clearly didn't have the budget or time to put together something truly polished, but what they made is pretty much better than many horrors out there today. The fact that you actually care about the characters and what happens to them is remarkable, and it doesn't have to rely on a crazy villain or nudity to get your attention. The dialogue is immature, but it is meant to be, seeing as how the leads are all adolescents. The only real downside is the pacing and editing as both are a little jarring and detract from the overall quality of the production. Overall I would definitely recommend this movie to any comedy horror fan. It isn't the most hilarious or gory, but it is smart and clearly the effort was made to produce a unique story, and it works.