Dead Shack (2017)


REVIEWER RATING: 
6/10


Hitting Shudder very soon is the new zombie comedy Dead Shack from filmmaker Peter Ricq, who makes his directorial debut about some teenage friends on a weekend getaway with their dad and his annoying girlfriend. Naturally they end up staying at some cabin in the woods, where the teens go on a little exploratory adventure and come across their neighbor's property. They proceed to peep through the window, thinking they're gonna see the neighbor (Lauren Holly) get her freak on with a couple drunk dudes, but instead she gets her murder on, causing the teens to haul ass out've there, but not before she spots'em leaving the area.

It turns out she has a really good logical reason for killing those guys, because it's soon revealed that she's keeping her zombie family shackled and well fed in her basement (DUH!). It's not long before the teens decide to take matters into their own hands if they want to get out of this predicament alive (insert obligatory suiting up montage). It's clear the filmmaker's goal was to capture some of the humor and sense of adventure with this movie and while I didn't really find much of it very funny, it did offer some amusing scenes and an overall light atmosphere, even during the gorier scenes, which were done with some very pleasing practical effects (that's how I like my zombie movies).



I enjoyed the movie to some extent despite being terribly unoriginal, but the flick wasn't really trying to break any new ground. Unfortunately that's what I have the biggest problem with--the movie simply didn't TRY to do anything new. I suppose since it obviously wasn't going to breathe new life into the zombie genre that maybe had I found it funnier or the characters more likable or maybe had there been more of a story I would've liked it a bit better, but that simply wasn't the case. As it stands it's an acceptable time waster and luckily if you cut out the credits it's just above 70 minutes, so the movie knows not to extend its welcome.

Dead Shack doesn't bring anything new to the genre, but it does deliver some sense of fun and a decent amount of practical gore. I think zombie fans (like myself) will enjoy this to some extent, but don't expect much more than what you've already seen from countless other movies.
OVERALL: 
Dead Shack doesn't bring anything new to the genre, but it does deliver some sense of fun and a decent amount of practical gore. I think zombie fans (like myself) will enjoy this to some extent, but don't expect much more than what you've already seen from countless other movies.


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