Director: Kyle Rankin
Cast: Michael Cassidy, Maria Thayer, Ray Wise, Chris Marquette, Syd Wilder and David Krumholtz
Certificate: 12
Running Time: 85 minutes.
Unlike the majority of today’s massive collection of zombie cinema – some of which belonging deep in the ground instead of roaming our screens – Kyle Rankin’s Night of the Living Deb is uniquely warm, funny and surprisingly charming. As such, viewers are advised to prepare themselves for a tale of a one-night stand gone hilariously, uncomfortably wrong in this zom-rom-com gem straight out of this year’s FrightFest Presents collection.
Night of the Living Deb follows protagonists Deb (Maria Thayer) and Ryan (Michael Cassidy) on a roller-coaster ride of a journey through Portland, as brains become food and where hearts are melted. Throughout the film the audience is invited to use their brains – instead of eat them – as it parodies the genre that has flooded screens in recent years. What is refreshing is that Night of the Living Deb echoes the eccentricities of films like Shaun of the Dead, with the wit and charisma of a tongue-in-cheek character at its core reminiscent of the lovable, albeit awkward Zooey Deschanel a la New Girl, or the fantastic Ellie Kemper a la Netflix’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
With this in mind however, Thayer’s performance of Deb may be received well by some yet disliked by others as her character narrowly borders the lines between endearing and exasperating. Either way, what quickly becomes clear is that Thayer’s performance is full of vibrancy, life and is authentically genuine.
Cassidy’s character however, though the romantic interest for Deb, serves to assist in portraying the kindness and intrinsic qualities of our female protagonist instead of asserting superiority over her. That being said, he is far too lax considering the disaster around him taking place and frankly, it feel as if Ryan’s nonchalance destabilises the character somewhat leaving us thinking – are you actually aware of what’s happening?
Aside from this, the characterisation really is quite wonderfully done, although upon meeting Ryan’s family, character development takes somewhat of a backseat in favour of seemingly forced familial feuds. If every character in this film could be as well-rounded and developed as nineties-child Deb, we would undoubtedly have a genre-defining film on our hands instead of being relegated to cult-classic status.
It is certainly a pleasant surprise to see pop-up performances from Chris Marquette and Ray Wise as Ryan’s family members, the latter being underused. On top of this, and no fault to the actors, the filmmakers certainly lay it on thick with a dense layer of comedy that works most of the time, but Rankin’s direction justifiably emphasises those thrilling emotional moments where it can stand tall.
Of specific note is the film’s budget, a mere £68,500 (approximately), in which every pound is used to its fullest and the result is something with a lot of heart behind it with high production value. The cheap laughs however undermine just some of the film’s more dramatic moments, making them feel unimportant and the deaths, pointless, providing no real emotional connection for the audience to tether themselves to. As a comedy, Night of the Living Deb thrives, as a horror, it struggles with ineffectual zombies, and as a romance – it is optimistic, dreaming big, but relies in the end on the stagnancy of the public declaration of love to win over audiences, both fictional and real.
Overall, Night of the Living Deb is a thoroughly enjoyable watch, it is intelligent, unique and well written, but is not far from a large sack of Halloween goodies – sweet, exciting and attractive in smaller doses, but if you digest the whole thing, it will either make you sick with joy or leave you feeling queasy for all the wrong reasons.
Night of the Living Deb is released on digital via Frightfest Presents on 19th October. Own it on DVD from 2nd May.
