From writer-director Drew Cullingham comes Shed of the Dead, a horror comedy starring horror icons Kane Hodder (Friday the 13th franchise, Hatchet franchise), Bill Moseley (The Devil’s Rejects, Three from Hell), and Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes, The Devil’s Rejects).
Meet Trevor (Spencer Brown) a hen-pecked, jobless guy who spends his days hiding from his wife in a shed or playing war games (think D&D) in the basement of his buddy Grahams’ house. When Trevor learns that his neighbors have signed a petition to have his retreat leveled and to have him kicked off his allotment he is furious. Trevor finally grows some balls and confronts Mr. Parsons (Hodder) things don’t go as planned. Luckily, the zombie apocalypse is about to begin.
Trevor comes across like your average loser, he refuses to take responsibility for his problems and would rather blame his wife than ask himself why she acts the way she does which makes him far from a sympathetic character. To be honest he’s not a character that has much of any kind of merit. He seems like the least likely to survive the apocalypse, yet somehow he does, which irks me just a bit.
When it comes to Trevor’s best friend, Graham (Ewen MacIntosh) things just go too far. I mean, do we really want to see a grown man sitting on the toilet, pleasuring himself while sniffing a woman’s discarded bikini wax strip for an entire scene? No, we don’t. This scene and a few others are just too juvenile and pointless for me.
The movie features three genre icons we all recognize, Hodder, Moseley, and Berryman. Who doesn’t love these guys? I will say this, I never thought I would see Berryman in full pony play gear, naying like a horse on all fours, but I did, not that there’s anything wrong with that. I just wasn’t expecting it. As for Hodder, it was nice to see him as a proper gent. Moseley’s role was very fitting, a serial killer. He is always great in those types of roles. Unfortunately, we don’t get to see these icons on screen for very long.
All in all, the movie was relatively entertaining. My main issue is that I felt like I’ve seen parts of it before. It was pretty clear that Shaun of the Dead heavily influenced it, two goofy best friends trying to survive the zombie apocalypse, one with romantic issues, one friend bit. Sounds similar, doesn’t it? The problem with this is, is that it lacks the same heart as Shaun of the Dead.
Shed of the Dead scored 2 1/2 out of 5 in my opinion. It will open in theaters May 17th, 2019, and arrives on VOD June 11th in Australia, Canada, England, and the United States, from Indican. For more on the film and screenings please visit the Shed of the Dead website.
