The film has serious strengths. I thought the editing was pretty interesting and the acting was quite good, but its greatest strength is probably its ability to dodge every cliche and end up with a surprisingly original piece of filmmaking. To me, that’s pretty significant, particularly given that it was treading some seriously cliched territory of teenagers, unrequited love, and zombies.

It was definitely difficult to watch, but I watched it. There are one or two scenes that I’m trying to get out of my head (one involving a wound), and while I wasn’t that disturbed at the time, when I tried to sleep, I actually had a hard time shaking the images, which has never happened to me before. I don’t think of this as a bad thing – I take it as a sign that while most films fade from memory the moment I turn them off, this one stuck. It triggered something – disgust, discomfort, fascination, confusion, curiosity, nausea…

The film has weaknesses. The writing isn’t quite there. The dialogue is a little hollow and unnatural in places, and while some praise this film as a study of the adolescent male psyche, I think it failed to pull it off. I see one character fraught with guilt, another character descend into sociopathy, but I don’t understand why. If I understood why, then I’d understand why they made the choices they did, which is fairly important, because I had to suspend some serious belief to believe a few teenage boys would be willing to fuck a putrefying zombie corpse. With its semi-developed characters, the film seems a little atonal, and the end of the film is a little hard to believe.

So I didn’t love the film, but I didn’t hate it either. I don’t know if this film falls on any register between love and hate – rather, memorable or forgettable. It’s memorable. There are memorable moments, good and bad, and memorable characters (due less to the writing than the strong acting). And the concept is memorable. Disturbing, but strangely compelling.

I struggled with the review above because it paints necrophilia as basically expected under those circumstances, which I highly doubt. As base and cynical as we Americans may be, it’s difficult for me to believe the average low-life would even consider raping a corpse. A live woman? That might garner more interest, but corpses and zombies? While viewing it, the thought kept returning that wouldn’t most men unquestionably prefer masturbation? In no way being naive to the minds of men, I’d have a hard time believing you’d find 6 or more boys in a high school interested in necrophilia. Unless I am completely behind the times already.

But it’s not just a film about necrophilia. Corpses don’t move around and try to bite you. JT’s interaction with the deadgirl immediately began with sexual and physical violence, before he was aware she was indeed a zombie. No concern whatsoever.

This film didn’t scare me, but the fact that others actually liked it is a bit disturbing. The bad acting and lack of dialogue alone were maddening. The subject matter was gory, stupid, and poorly handled, making me question how much empathy young people have after growing up surrounded by porn and violence. This film was absolutely repulsive and possesses virtually no artistic value, IMO.

I’m glad to hear you say that it doesn’t eroticize rape via graphic scenes but I’m wondering in regards to your comments how the power dynamic of ownership, having a dead girl in the basement, is handled? It sounds like it’s the power dynamic that gets the focus.

We cannot of course answer the question of What Would You Do but I’m left wondering if the filmmakers thoroughly processed what they were doing. It’s a powerful combination of mythic horror elements that could be used to explore the mechanics of rape culture but I’m afraid it sounds a lot like the kids who run up to the porch of the haunted house and dare to go no further.

If I keep this up I’m likely to talk myself into going to see it…feh.