DVD Review: Undead or Alive

Zombies and the old West? Sure, I'll buy that. It's a horror comedy? Sounds good so far. Wait a minute, it stars who? Chris Kattan, James Denton, and Navi Rawat? You're kidding me, right? Whose bright idea was it to take a former Saturday Night Live cast member, a member of the Desperate Housewives cast, and a member of the Numb3rs cast together in a zombie comedy?

I have no idea how this is supposed to work, but upon hearing of the cast combination, I knew I had to see it. Seriously, tell me the very idea of Chris Kattan in a zombie western is not terribly intriguing. Going in there was no way you could tell me that it was going to be good. After seeing it, there is no way that I can tell you that it is good. What I can say, however, is that it is actually kind of fun.

The setup, of which there is very little, is that when the US Army was pursuing Geronimo, his final act before dying was to create a "medicine" called White Man's Curse. What is this curse, you ask? Well, it causes the dead to rise and desire flesh. On top of that, if anyone gets bitten, they will inevitably turn into an undead creature.

With the opening exposition out of the way, the story shifts to a drifter named Elmer (Denton), and a dentist named Luke (Kattan). The two get in a scuffle and find themselves locked up in the local clink next to Ben (Brian Posehn) who just happens to be a zombie who was arrested after eating his daughter (at least I think it's his daughter). Of course, nobody knows that he is a zombie, or even what a zombie is. Anyway, the two polar opposites manage to escape lockup and rob the sheriff of his money before heading off into the wilderness.

Back to Ben for a moment — if you have one zombie, you are sure to have more zombies. Ben gets ahold of one of the deputies and before you know it, there is a zombie epidemic. The sheriff starts up a posse to head after Luke and Elmer, even as his crew gets more and more zombiefied.

Now Elmer and Luke end up running into Sue (Rawat), Geronimo's niece, who is intent on having her revenge on the army troops responsible for killing her uncle. That is about all of the story you get. What more do you need? The vast majority of zombie films end up as a survival story anyway. This is no different.

Article Author: Chris Beaumont

Christopher Beaumont spends much of his time writing about music and movies when he isn't indulging in them. He is always ready to talk about his favorite form of entertainment and offer up recommendations. Follow: Twitter and Tumblr. Visit: Critical Outcast. …

Visit Chris Beaumont's author page — Chris Beaumont's Blog