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Quickie Review - Juan of the Dead

Zombie films have really taken off lately.  So much so that The Walking Dead has made it big as a television serious.  The reality is, zombie films, while fun, are rarely actually very good movies.  You have the classics by George Romero and then you have everything else.  Until recently.  Film makers, somehow realized there could be humor inserted into them and it would make them better.  Or at the very least, change the pace.  Zombieland and Shaun of the Dead turned the same old tale into something quite entertaining, even if the scares really aren't there.  Dead Snow, while not a great movie, took it to a whole other level.  It made the zombies organized and fast.  Oh and did I mention they were Nazis?  Yeah, it's one you have to see to believe.

So now we come to Juan of the Dead.  The film was billed as the first Cuban horror film and is directed by Alejandro Brugues.  The protagonist, Juan, played by Alexis Diaz de Villegas, is a slacker in every sense of the word.  He has hopes to strike it rich, but never really knows how.  His buddy Lazaro, played by Jorge Molina try and catch fish and spend a lot of time drinking and dreaming.  Soon we realize that something is wrong, but even our two heroes don't seem to realize what is going on.  The television is telling of dissidents causing an uprising, ignoring the facts that the people are dead and eating each other. Juan then goes to get his estranged daughter, the lovely Andrea Duro, who had moved to Spain to live with her mother. We find out that Juan has always fallen short in his responsibilities and seems to be doing it again.  His love for his daughter and his friends bring them all together, with a few others, including Lazaro's son.

So what makes Juan of the Dead so wonderful?  It's because of how many movies it is in one.  Juan is a caring man, who helps his neighbors, although he is also having an affair with one.  He is a trusted friend and a loving, but not exactly devoted father.  What is amazing is that in 94 minutes, the movie goes from a buddy story to a parenting movie to a survival story to a redemption story.  There are countless encounters with the zombies and some are bloody, some are gruesome, some are truly epic and some are downright hilarious.  I'd be remiss if I didn't mention one scene.  Juan has been handcuffed to a transvestite named La China who has been bitten.  As La China changes, Juan must do everything in his power to keep him away.  What ensues, with background music in sync, is a tango sequence that is quite possibly the best dance scene in a move since Singing in the Rain.  I can't remember watching a movie by myself and laughing harder than at this scene.  

Maybe because it's so fresh in my mind or maybe it was just what I needed, but the movie has everything.  It has action, tension, pretty girls, relationships and zombies, but it also has four characters you truly care about and you are wishing good things for.  There is a not so subliminal political message and there are other messages hidden within, but what makes it work is the characters actually having character.  When we are introduced to them, this is not at all apparent.  Some may think I'm overstating how good this movie is, but in many ways it reminded me Joon-ho Bong's The Host, in that the monsters are actually a bit of a metaphor for a bigger story.  Love and redemption.

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