Juan of the Dead

Well, the first DVD night of 2013 started with this little gem.  Truthfully, I picked it up purely because of the title and the fact that I've been to Cuba and have stayed in Havana.  Thought it might be fun.  It certainly was!

Synopsis - Juan (or Juanita to the old lady upstairs) is a slacker trying to rebuild trust with his daughter, who is planning to leave him and move to Spain to stay with her mother.  Juan's best buddy Lazaro is also trying to reconnect with his son.  Both buddies begin to notice that the locals are going a bit crazy, killing people and eating their flesh!  Also, the recently deceased appear to be coming back to life.  On the television, Castro's Government claim that the zombies are dissidents revolting against the country with support from the USA.  Juan sees an opportunity and starts a business to profit from killing the zombies - "Juan of the dead, we kill your loved ones!"  But in doing so, he and his team of misfits soon find themselves at risk.

Firstly, we didn't expect a great deal from a low budget zombie flick filmed in Cuba, but we were wrong.  It was funny, imaginative and well acted.  Some basic understanding of recent Cuban political life could be helpful to appreciate some of the comedy pathos (references to the 'special period' for example).  But its not really necessary and the majority of the laughs come from sight gags, including one hilarious scene between Juan and Lazaro on a rooftop at night, which left all of us with sore jaws from laughing so much!  I had hoped that Juan might steal the yacht from the Museum of the Revolution at the end of the film and use that to escape, but I appreciate that option might not have played too well with the current administration :)

Overall, a solid little comedy horror flick with some excellent effects for its budget and some memorable visuals.  In particular, the mass zombie slaughter in Revolution Square and the underwater zombie scenes are both pretty special - with the latter reminding me of the 'lost' footage and related posters for Zombie Flesh Eaters.  Nice to actually see how such a scene works in practice.  If you enjoyed Shaun of the Dead, this little gem is an extremely pleasant surprise and comes highly recommended.  The soundtrack is also fabulous.