Juan (Alexis Díaz de Villegas) is a 40 year old survivor who manages to get by doing almost nothing. He and his halfwit friend Lazaro (Jorge Molina) can only scheme and think about sex. One day his daughter Camila (Andrea Duro) arrives, who wants nothing to do with her father, and Juan’s fatherly emotions resurface, but it is also on that same day that Cuba is swept with a zombie virus. Like many around the island, Juan was convinced that the zombies were just part of the revolution led by the Americans but over time they eventually realize these flesh eating humans aren’t dissidents but something else. Eventually, this leads to Juan and his ragtag group of friends to take advantage of their situation by starting a business with the slogan being “Juan of the Dead – We kill your beloved ones.” Directed by Alejandro Brugués, Juan of the Dead becomes a film about survival, profiting and redemption in the wake of a zombie revolution…I mean apocalypse.
Juan of the Dead, first and foremost, is clearly a spoof/tribute to Edgar Wright’s modern day cult classic, Shaun of the Dead, along with a few others as well. There are direct sendoffs from the film but each are given their own Cuban twist in order to bring something new to the table. For instance, Juan’s weapon is a wooden oar instead of a wooden cricket bat and his main goal throughout the film is to prove to his estranged daughter that he has changed and is worthy of her company. See the similarities yet?
So what types of zombies exist in the film? Well, as I said earlier this is most definitely a tribute in addition to trying to be original and, as such, we have quite a variety of zombies. There are the fast and agile zombies that can climb buildings (called hares), there are the slow and extremely stupid zombies (called turtles), zombies that manage to swim, hell there are zombies that actually go to sleep. The variety is what makes the movie fun and surprising as we travel through the picture with Juan and his gang.
What I loved and really appreciated about the movie was how authentic and Cuban it actually felt. The people who live in Cuba are isolated and everything negative that happens is seemingly blamed on the US, so it’s no surprise that the government calls the zombies dissidents who should be put down. But that isn’t all, the people actually don’t know what zombies are, they think the people have simply gone crazy and are trying to ruin their homeland for America’s sake. The idea of the dead walking doesn’t make sense at all to them, all they know is that to kill them they have to hit them on the head or chop it off. Talk about a social satire.
There are a lot of ridiculous scenes in the film along with a ton of funny dialogue. It may not all be laugh out loud but you’ll definitely be smiling to yourself. Some of my personal highlights include the first real killing montage, ‘cause every zombie romp needs one. The second is when they decide to go out looking for essential supplies, rum being the top priority. The final one is when Juan asks his buddies to help an old ma
n in a wheelchair get away from some zombies, instead they take the guys wheelchair and use it to wheel their rum. It’s the stupid stuff like that which made me happy.
I did find the find myself getting frustrated every so often by the characters and their actions because I was never able to understand their logic. I also was not a fan of the ending at all. I understood its purpose but thought it was stupid and showed that Juan didn’t grow as much as an individual as we had been perceived. One other item, don’t question the film otherwise you’ll get annoyed with how the group manages to travel around most of the time without any real problems.
Juan of the Dead is a cheeky zombie romp that’s full of plenty of laughs and a below average amount of blood. Despite all that, zombies do die and in a variety of fantastic ways even if you can’t always see it (blame the budget?). For Zom Com fans, this very Cuban film is worth hunting down, especially if you love Shaun of the Dead.
Rating: A cheeky and giddy sendoff to some the most entertaining zombie comedies out there (6/10)
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