Director – Joe Zerull (Skippy Love Chicago)
Starring – Daniel Rairdin-Hale (The Old Man’s Road), Hanlon Smith-Dorsey (The Clean Up), and Yosh Hayashi (In All the Wrong Places)
Release Date – 2012
Rating – 4.5/5
Tagline(s) – “God bless us everyone” “Zombies for the holidays” and “Never Leave a Mess Unclean!”
As the Christmas season was coming to a close last year I decided to venture over to amazon.com to see if I could find more Christmas horror. Last year I made my way through a decent number of flicks and reviewed them all. However, that only left me very few films for next Christmas.
I was hoping to come across a few films I could order to review this December but what I found was something far better. The first film I found was A Cadaver Christmas and it looked fucking amazing. I immediately turned to YouTube and watched the trailer where I fell in love. I ordered it and put it on my shelf where I waited patiently until this December so I could finally watch what promised to be one fun flick.
**Spoiler Alert**The film follows a husky bar tender and the town drunk as they are enjoying their slow Christmas Eve when a bloody janitor interrupted. While the janitor is in the restroom washing up the bar tender calls his officer friend. The janitor comes from the restroom and tells the two of why he is blood soaked.
While he was cleaning the halls at the college the cadavers (not zombies) came back to life and attacked him. He had to fight them off before he escaped and made his way to the bar. The officer arrives and takes the three of them back to the college to confirm the janitor’s story. When they arrive at the college they discover that all hell has broken lose all because one of the professors was doing experiments on cadavers to save his dying wife. This backfired reanimating the cadavers. Now, the officer, janitor, bar tender, and drunk have to fight their way out or die trying. **Spoiler Alert**
Some movies are made and they instantly create a large fan base without doing anything special. Hell, I personally find most of horror’s so called “classics” to be mediocre flicks that draw in the masses for some unknown reason. This leaves the real classics to sit there in the dark all alone with no one to watch them. That is how I feel about A Cadaver Christmas. This film not only succeeds as a holiday classic but it is one of the best damn zombie (or cadaver) flicks that I have seen in years. This is honestly one of the few films that is fun from beginning to end.
The acting in this one is top notch by the entire cast. Every cast member really brought something to the film and made every character fun. I especially enjoyed Hale’s and Dorsey’s characters. Hale plays a great reluctant hero and Dorsey’s character pulls heavy on the ol’ heartstrings. The story is your standard zombie story that has been threw in a Christmas setting and covered with comedy. If you watch this movie and do not laugh at least once then you may need to check your own pulse.
Finally, those looking for blood and guts will find it here by the bucket full. This film is a brilliantly and bloody film that matches each blood splatter with a chuckle. Overall, this is a festive comedy that is just as bloody as it is brilliant. I highly recommend this one.
Excellent review! Thanks for writing it. Vicki