Detention Of The Dead

PLOT:
High school is such a hard place to be at. There's the pressures of making good grades, having to fit in, being in love with a girl of your dreams that you can't have, and even worring about the bullies beating you up. When Eddie (played by Jacob Zachar) is given detention, he finds outs that he will be spending that time in the same room with the girl of his dreams, the head cheerleader Janet (played by Christa Allen). Only problem though is Brad (played by Jayson Blair) is the bully that's always picking on him. Life couldn't get any worse for Eddie then having to spend detention watching the girl he loves make out with the guy that torments him, except for when the zombies take over the school that is. Trapped in the schools library, Eddie and the small group of kids must fight for survival as zombies run a muck in the school wanting only to eat them.

ACTING:
Being that Detention of the Dead is a B-movie that I expected to be stupid I was actually surprised by the level of acting being done in it. I can't say that it's great acting or that it is worthy of awards but nor can I say that it's bad acting. Worst of it is at times I think that Jacob Zachar tries a little too hard to be the geeky shy guy around the cheerleader. There are a few other moments with the rest of the cast that seem a little over the top but those moments are few and short. Past those few moments the acting is good, better in fact than I would have expected. This cast works well with each other, they have good on screen chemistry, and they are believable as high school teens who are trying to deal with detention. However, when it comes to the zombies attacking, I think that in reality they would all been freaking out a bit more but I can set aside the reality of what would be and be content with the humor in what they do.

STORY DELVELOPMENT:
What I like the most about this movie was how well the story was developed. It starts right off at the end of the day where we meet the main character Eddie and then quickly meet the rest of the cast. It jumps right into the story with having the zombies there from the start without giving any reason for them but it don't matter because the story is how these kids that mostly don't like each other, are now trapped in the same room in a building full of zombies. There's a good amount of humor in this, actually if the zombies where taken away it would have been a comedy, one that has already been done and one with no real point but one none the less. I was amused with Detention of the Dead, it has good music playing at key moments, though the make up and effects aren't high level they are still good, but most impressive is how this movie is shot like it was with a decent sized budget. The locations stayed the same but the cinematography was impressive with the way the scenes where shot. Though it's right at an hour and half long it didn't seem that way because of how quick paced the movie is.

ORIGINALITY:
Alright, so Detention of the Dead don't make it into the all new movie list but instead it's one that has taken other ideas and merged them into a fun movie. The cast is set up like the "Breakfast Club" movie where we get two jocks, the good looking head cheerleader, the geek, a Gothic girl, and a stoner stuck in detention in high school. See, it is the same but now the twist is them having to deal with zombies instead of a principle. Actually, it wouldn't surprise me if the idea was formed by similar thread of thought. Does it work? Yep, I enjoyed it, even with the idea being one that makes me go, "yeah they're just using that movie with that movie", but they have put it together well and it works to be a fun movie.