31 Days of Halloween: The Revenant

2009, Kerry Prior (Roadkill) -- download

No, not Leonardo and the Bear, but a zombie buddie movie starring David Anders in a role as a mostly likable walking dead who teams up with his buddy to fight crime. David Anders, who we actually know from another undead series, iZombie, where he played the charismatic and, honestly, likable Bad Guy Blaine DeBeers, seems meant to play charismatic bad guys. He has that rock & roll, sleek aesthetic about him which appeals to me.

Here, a decade ago, he plays Bart, an American soldier killed in Iraq but who, for no reason ever explained, rises from the dead, not long after his funeral. There is a hint at the opening about Bart being one of these guys who just does the right thing, no matter how bad an idea it is. And then that thought is dispensed with for the rest of the movie, so we can just have a violent buddy zombie comedy.

Early in the movie, Bart struggles to understand what he is and WHY he is, but with the unwise help of his ultra-slacker best friend, they just end up becoming vigilantes, killing the Bad Guys of LA, which works out well for the people they save and Bart, who gets to suck the blood of said Bad Guys, rejuvenating him for a while. Is he a zombie? A vampire? A bit of both - a revenant !!

This movie struck me as one that started with one idea, but evolved when the creators just had too much fun doing the buddy comedy vigilante stuff. Eventually they ran out of hijinx to put on the screen and had to lead it somewhere, to some sort of climax. That climax, with Bart discovering almost all the people he killed are now back also as revenants, is ridiculous and out of character for the rest of the movie, especially when the US military gets involved. The movie is entertaining, but ultimately unsatisfying.