Song Of The Dead - Zombie Musical Review Part 1

Firstly, I thought this was going to be part 1 of 3, stupidly thinking that there were only 3 Zombie Musicals in existence - WRONG!

Part 1 is this, Song Of The Dead.
Part 2 will be Night Of The Musical Dead
Part 3 will be Maelstrom : A Zombie Opera.

Just after I typed the title in I discovered lots more - Z : A Zombie Musical, Half Alive : The Zombie Musical,  People Of None Effect and more...... I've (hopefully) got in touch with some of creators of these films to see if there's any way I can get a DVD.

There's bound to be at least one Bollywood Zombie film too so this series could easily be open ended.

Anyway onto Song Of The Dead.

The film starts with a zombie encountering and then chomping on a victim. So far so every other zombie film on the face of the planet. Of course, being a musical, the victim bursts into song before expiring. When he reanimates he sings what becomes the zombies signature song "Flesh & Blood".

We switch to what has to be a homage to Night Of The Living Dead. Sandy King & her boyfriend Brad are visiting her mother's grave (we get a song about her loss natch) when a zombie attacks. They are saved by a caretaker (who gets infected) and they make their getaway when the inevitable zombie horde shows up.

The caretaker infects Brad and they hole up at the King family residence with her USAF brother, Vietnam vet dad and serial killer neighbour.

News reports indicate that a spray mission was sabotaged by terrorists with something called JRV (Jihad Resurrection Virus) which has brought the dead back to life. This is announced by a singing, dancing President, played by Reggie Bannister (yes, of Phantasm fame). Perhaps they should do a musical remake of Phantasm, complete with flying disco balls. These portions, complete with "patriotic" songs "United We Stand" & "Terrorist Attack", are possibly the weakest with sledgehammer heavy satire against blind patriotism. Reggie does a mean line in "dad dancing" though.

Musicals stand or fall on their songs though. So how does Song Of The Dead fare? The music by The Unfashionables tends to be bright and cheery on the whole, juxtapositioned against the zombie onslaught. I could perhaps have done without the constant reprises of "Flesh & Blood". And who'd have thought choreographed dancing zombies would be such an appealing sight?

All in all, it might not be a classic but it's a diverting way of spending 86 minutes of your life. It's certainly a welcome change to the Romero-lite offerings which pollute the zombie genre.