Stag Night of the Dead (2010) Review
Written, Produced and Directed by Napoleon Jones on a budget of £150,000, I first saw a sneak preview of Stag Night Of The Dead on a free DVD, given away with Gorezone Magazine.
I found the preview to be very entertaining and put it on my mental list of ‘films to look forward to. I was eager to see the end product.
Finally it arrived, and after I shut up the screaming woman I kidnapped in the woods the night before, I hit play on the DVD player.
The government in their eternal wisdom, following a pandemic of the zombie kind, have decided to sublet zombies to be used for the paintball-like experience Zomball. There are no paintball bullets involved and rather than shooting the zombies with a gun and basically blowing their brains out (they guys at Zomball are going to want to re-use them aren’t they?), the guns fire what appear to be streams a la Ghostbusters. As a participant it’s important that you recharge the guns as otherwise the power drains and you can end up as the zombie’s main course.
Dean is on his stag night, although you wouldn’t believe he was actually allowed out considering the constant ear bashing he gets from his bride-to-be Elaine. She insists he carries on with preparing with the big day when he should be having fun, getting him to pick up the button holes and chocolate fountain.
It already looks like he is under the thumb before bridezilla has got him down the aisle and stuck that ring on his finger (more like handcuffs, it would seem).
Dean is whisked away in a limo with his future father-in-law in tow, to a location neither has been made aware of. His school friends have taken him to a run down military base (with a stripper – obviously) for what they believe to be the ultimate stag party experience. They are going to play Zomball. Yes, that’s right – paintball with zombies as the targets!
The friends are told by one of the military personnel that they are to see Mr.Big, who is in fact a dwarf (or ‘little Person’, depending on what is politically correct at the time of reading this review). Hilarious. He bellows “Come with me!” to the guys and they follow him into an air hangar, where they meet their host Mr. Ree (Get it?) for the evening. Mr Ree explains the one golden rule of Zomball – Never humiliate a zombie. Eh? Puzzled by this statement, I continued to watch SNOTD…
What follows is 81 minutes of fun, with twists and turns aplenty.
I’ve never laughed so much watching a film. It’s hilarious. And the characters are quite loveable, even the roguish ones.
What’s good about the characters is that they stand out as your archetypal stags. If you’ve ever been on a stag night, I’m sure you will identify with all of them.
Although some of the acting at times is a bit over the top, it can be taken as intentional as the case are poking fun at their characters. They make quite obvious how much fun they are having making the film.
On a £150,000 budget the film looks far bigger than it actually is and the effects are pretty good. I’ve watched far too many low budget zombie movies where the effects are cheap and transparent – even down to the zombies devouring innards (which should always look real). But in Stag Night of the Dead subtle use of camerawork has ensured this is not the case here. Great work.
Stag Night Of The Dead is a great zomcom, which I would highly recommend. It would be ideal to watch with some mates after a trip to the pub on a Friday night. Just get some friends round with some cans and chill out.
I am so looking forward to Hen Night Of The Dead and will be happy if it’s even half as good as this film.
Movie Rating:
Trailer: