Absolutely Fantastic

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This 1989 horror film stars Scott Grimes and John Astin. Grimes (Critters) plays Archie, a nerdy teen who works at a mortuary for his uncle, Flanders (Astin). Archie gets picked on by 2 jocks from school who soon die in a car accident with their girlfriends. One night during a rainstorm, they're resurrected by lightning and Archie becomes terrorized by them. This isn't bad and Grimes is good in it along with the make-up effects. Give this a view at least once horror fans.

"Archie Melville" (Scott Grimes) is a high school student who works at the local mortuary during the night for his uncle "Verlin Flanders" (John Astin). Unfortunately, this severely impacts his social life and the girl of his dreams "Joanie Snowland" (Lisa Fuller) wants nothing to do with him. Not only that but two jocks at the high school have made it their mission to harass him endlessly as well. To make matters even worse the only friend he has named "Chary Dorn" (Cheryl Pollak) tells him she is leaving town permanently. But things change quickly after a fatal car accident involving a toxic spill sends his two tormentors along with Joanie and her friend "Roberta Woods" (Darcy DeMoss) to the funeral home where he works--and then lightning strikes! Now rather than reveal any more of the movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this was a peculiar zombie film which had its ups and downs. For starters, there were some parts which I thought were extremely slow and I didn't think the humor was all that keen either. But the gore factor was quite high and having 3 attractive actresses like the aforementioned Lisa Fuller, Cheryl Pollak and Darcy DeMoss certainly didn't hurt. In short, while I didn't think this was a great zombie movie by any means it was okay for the time spent and I rate it as about average.

Poor Archie. He just can't seem to catch a break. He has to put up with his cantankerous Uncle to work at a funeral parlor, he is bullied by the school jock, has no love life, no money, seemingly no prospects. Things get worse when Archie is fired after an incident at the funeral parlor. Charlie gets a chance to redeem himself from his Uncle the next day, but Charlie gets much more than he bargained for when the bullies that torment him die in a car wreck and come back from the dead.Going by the 15 reviews on this site and the lack of votes, I'm guessing this went unseen when it came out. It is a bit of a shame because for what it is, it is fairly enjoyable. I'm a big fan of cheesy films from the 80's, especially horror films from the 80's. Something from that time period was magical and can't be duplicated. The film's lack of budget prevents the zombies from looking all that impressive, but the flow of the film is so entertaining that it doesn't really matter. The mortuary makes for an ideal setting for this sort of thing and I thought they capitalized on it well. A big budget isn't always a necessity to make a fun movie. This is a horror/comedy and it works extremely well, giving us some good comedy, as well as decent suspense at times. There is some great slapstick involving corpses at the mortuary. My favorite suspenseful scene is the battle with a zombie on fire and Archie inside a grave. That was incredibly well done. There is a decent amount of gore. We get a severed hand in a bucket, somebody drills his eye out, bloody autopsy scenes. My personal favorite is when a guy swallows embalming fluid. I am not gonna spoil it for you. Let me just say it's memorable. Scott Grimes makes for a perfect lead as Archie, strong-willed, yet vulnerable and sensitive. He's a guy I'd have love to hang around with, minus his job at the mortuary. John Astin is excellent as the indignant uncle. You'll hate him. Cheryl Pollak is gorgeous as Archie's love interest. She's spunky and a lot of fun to watch. Overall, if you can find this one, I suggest you pick it up. It won't blow you away, but it is a fun zombie film 6.6/10

Blimey. This one turned out to be a real surprise! Its got a half decent story, characters you care about, nice make up effects. It's scary, isn't overly gory, the funny bits never get in the way of the serious stuff. What a film!