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Juan Of The Dead – The Bleeding Cool Review

I consider it the mark of a really good film when I don't remember until the end credits that I was supposed to be assessing it for a review. If I have one criticism of Juan of the Dead, it's that the film is so much fun it distracted me from doing my job.

Here's my attempt, anyway. The marketing for Juan of the Dead, from the title onwards, is targeted towards fans of Shaun of the Dead, the film that coined the term "romzomcom" and one of a relatively small pool of horror films that transcended the niche audience of zombie movie fans to appeal to the movie-going public at large. Juan of the Dead was apparently partially intended as an homage to Edgar Wright's film – which in turn was an homage to just about every zombie movie ever made – but it's not something that you'll notice whilst watching it.

Considering it retrospectively, there are fundamental similarities. Juan himself (Alexis Díaz de Villegas) is a slightly melancholy thirty-something resting on the lower rungs of society as a part-time fisherman and part-time petty criminal. He has a slovenly best friend called Lazaro (Jorge Molina), who looks almost distractingly like a Cuban version of Stephen Graham. When the zombie epidemic strikes his home town of Havana, Juan makes an attempt to pull himself up by the bootstraps in order to reconcile himself with a woman – in this case not a girlfriend but his daughter, Camila (Andrea Duro). His group of friends is rounded out by Lazaro's son Vladi (Andros Perugorría) and gay couple El Primo (Eliecer Ramírez) and La China (Jazz Vilá).

It's rare to find a horror movie where the supporting cast (translation: zombie fodder) are as well-rounded and memorable as those in Juan. China occasionally skirts the edges of stereotype, but Vilá's performance is strong enough to make lines that might otherwise have been cringeworthy come across naturally, and China is probably my favourite character out of the group. Primo is about 7 feet tall and packed with enough muscle to combat Arnie in his glory days, but has the unfortunate handicap of instantly fainting at the sight of blood. I won't spoil for you the solution that they come up with for this problem, but as well as being inherently funny it makes for some great physical comedy. Camila is beautiful and badass in equal measure, and the fact that her burgeoning relationship with the laidback, good-natured Vladi doesn't get much screen time means that it comes across as genuinely tender rather than simply as a forced romance subplot. Overall, the group dynamic and chemistry between the actors is what makes the audience feel genuinely invested in them and their fight for survival, and therefore is also what brings the film together and makes it work so well.

Going back to the main plot, Juan and co. find themselves trapped in the middle of a Havana beset by a growing zombie menace, but the news reports insist that the walking dead are simply dissidents being encouraged by the US government. The political aspects of the film do not encroach on the story as much as you might expect, though a number of references are made to the revolution, since Juan himself takes no particular interest in politics beyond simply surviving in whatever form of society he finds himself in. Juan of the Dead acknowledges the turbulent history of the country in which it is set, and even uses it for some interesting character insight (Vladi, for example, expresses a desire to go and live somewhere where the people have never even heard of Cuba, socialism or Castro), but the acknowledgement never turns into a political agenda.

Because of the news reports, the zombies are almost exclusively referred to as "dissidents" by the main characters, but that doesn't stop Juan from setting up a new business to take advantage of the situation and his own impressive dissident-slaying skills: Juan of the Dead, "We kill your loved ones."

Let the epic zombie kill montage begin!

In all seriousness, Juan of the Dead has probably some of the most creative zombie executions I have ever seen, though at times I began to judge myself for enjoying it as much as I did. The zombie make-up is excellent and while writer-director Alejandro Brugués chooses not to put much focus on the tragic aspects of widespread death and destruction, there are some particularly haunting shots of the Cuban walking dead wandering around the streets of Havana and, most affecting of all, a sequence in which the camera descends beneath the ocean to reveal thousands of zombies walking along on the sea bed.

Juan of the Dead is funny, clever, engaging, and plenty of synonyms for "great" that I would list here if my Thesaurus wasn't all the way over on the other side of the room (that's dedication to the work, people). If you're a fan of zombie movies then you'll be hard-pressed to find better fare in recent years, and even if you're not I guarantee you'll still leave the cinema with a smile on your face.

Juan of the Dead will receive a limited UK release starting from Friday 4th May. If you're lucky enough to live in the London area you can see it from tomorrow at the Ritzy Picturehouse and the Hackney Picturehouse.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOquktXvkT4[/youtube]

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