"Corpses" is a totally retarded but enthusiast and engaging video-horror that aims for fans of comedy horror and brainless splatter. It's a terrible film, really, but quite entertaining if you leave your thinking capabilities at the door. The nearly bankrupt mortician of a small community accidentally invented a new embalming fluid that brings the corpses on his table back to life. Instead of making his discovery public and win a Nobel Price, he uses the invention to raise an army of docile zombies to settle the score with his obnoxious ex-wife, who ran off to live with the local sheriff and continuously tries to close down the mortuary. It's up to the undertaker's geeky assistant (who uses a ridiculous moped as transport) and his rebellious girlfriend to prevent more undead people from walking the streets again. The best thing I can say about "Corpses" is that's an adequately produced homage to cheesy 80's splatter; Stuart Gordon's legendary film "Re-Animator" in particular. The characters are walking talking stereotypes, the gory make-up effects are immensely over-the-top and the dialogs are deliberately incompetent. Gore, humor, stupidity, more gore and a little bit of gratuitous sleaze
Sometimes, that's all a undemanding horror fan requires to be satisfied.
24 Reviews
Corpses? I felt like one after this.
soniasmith0531 August 2007
Being a relatively new fan of Tiffany Shepis, I was quite pleased to find this in a 'bargain bin' (along with 'Dead Scared') for a very reasonable £1.99. At that price it had to be worth a go, not that I was expecting that much.
A brief background: debt ridden mortician has found a way to bring back the dead with a secret serum whose ex wife has taken up with the local Sheriff. Said mortician wants to get his own back and sends his 'corpses' out stealing and killing. The Sheriff, his daughter, her boyfriend and the ex-wife end up in the mortuary fighting the zombies.
Unfortunately, there's not much to say about the whole experience. Yes, I realise it's a tongue in cheek spoof but there are few amusing scenes and the dialogue isn't exactly rib tickling (as usual, Shepis gets those that raise a smile) but I didn't know it was a comedy horror at the time. What kind of horror film is it when Tiffany Shepis doesn't get her kit off? 'Dead Scared' is far superior.
The DVD has a 20 minute 'behind the scenes' extra but what did I really expect for a quid? I got what I paid for.
A brief background: debt ridden mortician has found a way to bring back the dead with a secret serum whose ex wife has taken up with the local Sheriff. Said mortician wants to get his own back and sends his 'corpses' out stealing and killing. The Sheriff, his daughter, her boyfriend and the ex-wife end up in the mortuary fighting the zombies.
Unfortunately, there's not much to say about the whole experience. Yes, I realise it's a tongue in cheek spoof but there are few amusing scenes and the dialogue isn't exactly rib tickling (as usual, Shepis gets those that raise a smile) but I didn't know it was a comedy horror at the time. What kind of horror film is it when Tiffany Shepis doesn't get her kit off? 'Dead Scared' is far superior.
The DVD has a 20 minute 'behind the scenes' extra but what did I really expect for a quid? I got what I paid for.
"This case is getting more interesting by the minute." Not good.
poolandrews13 February 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Corpses is set in a small American town where there's a backlog at the local funeral home, the owner Fred (Robert Donovan) & his teenage assistant Jerry (Stephen Williams) have their hands full. However Fred has bigger problems as he can't keep up the repayments on the mortuary & the bank are about to repossess it, add that to the fact that his ex-wife Helen (Melinda Bonini) has started a petition to close the mortuary so a shopping mall can be built on the land & things aren't looking great for Fred. Drastic situations call for drastic measures so Fred develops a serum to bring the dead back to life & uses them to steal lots of money, unfortunately they have a tendency to kill innocent victims & the local chief of police (Jeff Fahey) is on the case...
Written & directed by Rolfe Kanefsky I thought Corpses was a dumb horror comedy that never really worked for me on either front. The script reminded me of Shaun of the Dead (2004) in the sense that it was a light hearted horror comedy that had zombies in it &, well OK when I think about it it didn't remind of Shaun of the Dead that much after all because that's where the comparison stops. You see Shaun of the Dead is clever, smart & actually pretty funny at times while Corpses most certainly isn't. It tries to mix comedy & gore which it fails to do with any degree of success, Corpses just isn't funny at all in a laugh-out-loud sort of way although there are one or two bit which might raise a smile if nothing else. As a film it's stupid & moronic with zombies shuffling around with huge erections as they try to grab the admittedly rather hot looking Tiffany Shepis, this is about as clever & imaginative as Corpses gets which is all you need to know really. The character's are dumb as well, in particular Jeff Fahey's police captain is lame & there is no explanation as to how Fred created the serum at all. Having said that it moves along at a reasonable pace & is fairly inoffensive to sit through so I'll give it a slightly generous four stars out of ten.
Director Kanefsky does OK & as a whole Corpses doesn't look too bad although I could have done without the blatant Re-Animator (1985) homage or rip-off, whichever way you look at it, with it's fluorescent green serum that brings the dead back to life. There are also a few other references/homages to look out for including several obvious Dawn of the Dead (1978) ones. There's some gore here, there's some intestine's, a few body parts, someone is impaled on a metal pole, someone has their heart ripped out & a slit throat.
Technically Corpses is alright, considering the budget was probably low it could have been worse. The acting varies, Fahey must be desperate for money while the cute Shepis provides nice eye candy.
Corpses isn't great, it's meant to be a horror comedy that has very little horror or comedy so in that regard one could say Corpses in't the most successful film ever made, maybe worth a watch if your desperate but then again maybe not...
Written & directed by Rolfe Kanefsky I thought Corpses was a dumb horror comedy that never really worked for me on either front. The script reminded me of Shaun of the Dead (2004) in the sense that it was a light hearted horror comedy that had zombies in it &, well OK when I think about it it didn't remind of Shaun of the Dead that much after all because that's where the comparison stops. You see Shaun of the Dead is clever, smart & actually pretty funny at times while Corpses most certainly isn't. It tries to mix comedy & gore which it fails to do with any degree of success, Corpses just isn't funny at all in a laugh-out-loud sort of way although there are one or two bit which might raise a smile if nothing else. As a film it's stupid & moronic with zombies shuffling around with huge erections as they try to grab the admittedly rather hot looking Tiffany Shepis, this is about as clever & imaginative as Corpses gets which is all you need to know really. The character's are dumb as well, in particular Jeff Fahey's police captain is lame & there is no explanation as to how Fred created the serum at all. Having said that it moves along at a reasonable pace & is fairly inoffensive to sit through so I'll give it a slightly generous four stars out of ten.
Director Kanefsky does OK & as a whole Corpses doesn't look too bad although I could have done without the blatant Re-Animator (1985) homage or rip-off, whichever way you look at it, with it's fluorescent green serum that brings the dead back to life. There are also a few other references/homages to look out for including several obvious Dawn of the Dead (1978) ones. There's some gore here, there's some intestine's, a few body parts, someone is impaled on a metal pole, someone has their heart ripped out & a slit throat.
Technically Corpses is alright, considering the budget was probably low it could have been worse. The acting varies, Fahey must be desperate for money while the cute Shepis provides nice eye candy.
Corpses isn't great, it's meant to be a horror comedy that has very little horror or comedy so in that regard one could say Corpses in't the most successful film ever made, maybe worth a watch if your desperate but then again maybe not...
Wow, this one is *really* bad...
amg-1125 February 2005
I was expecting B-grade...maybe even something campy and troma-esque. That would be a negative on both counts. This movie features:
1 out of 5
- Dorky high-school kid riding a red scooter bought from Sam's Club - Couple hot chicks with severe behavior issues - The worst acting I've ever seen in a "film" (Note: This movie may have been better shot on tape...using film gives it some resemblance of being legitimate) - Scene transitions that look like they were done with "iMovie" - The guard dog in one of the scenes looks like it was borrowed from a visit to the local Petco
1 out of 5
This movie is so bad it boggles the mind
cherub962 March 2005
This movie is a cautionary tale against taking IMDb scores at face value. At 6.2, I thought this movie couldn't be bad, now could it? Only later did I discover that rating came from 13 votes, which would probably be the actors in the movie, mostly. So what's there to say about the movie? Really bad acting, cheesy movie, crappy camera work, stupid story.... Need I go on? Frankly, this movie does not have any redeeming features. It is something I would expect from a dyslexic with a camcorder.
Bottomline: This movie is really, really bad, and should be avoided at all cost.
Bottomline: This movie is really, really bad, and should be avoided at all cost.
Is there really a word for how bad this is?
pkourakos9 June 2006
Warning: Spoilers
***This comment may contain spoilers***
Question: What do you get when you give an asshole a couple of hundred dollars to make a horror movie? Answer: this movie.
I don't even know where to begin with this "film". The best part was when the words "THE END" came on the screen. It's almost painful to watch this farce. it looks almost like it's a student film, yet it has the quality and the pacing of a porn movie.
It seems that the people who were playng the newly risen (trust me, they're NOT zombies) never watched a zombie movie, or the director had his head up his ass. It could be a combination of the two.
The gore wasn't too bad, but where the hell are the people eating zombies? These zombies just grab your limbs and rip them off. Too bad this added a comic effect to the movie.
This brings me to the newly risen. There are several reasons why I refuse to call them zombies. First, one minute they were shuffling around and the next minute they were running at full speed. Second, one of them talked. When the hell did zombies learn to talk? This is easily the worst thing in ANY zombie movies. Lastly, they were reduced to drug addicts looking for their next fix. there was a scene where they were all holding their arms out for more serum so they could stay alive for another hour. Who writes this nonsense? The mortician says that his newly risen allies have been trained to obey him, and he also debriefs them on their larceny missions. Yeah, you read that right and I wish I was kidding.
This movie is definitely NOT recommended.
Question: What do you get when you give an asshole a couple of hundred dollars to make a horror movie? Answer: this movie.
I don't even know where to begin with this "film". The best part was when the words "THE END" came on the screen. It's almost painful to watch this farce. it looks almost like it's a student film, yet it has the quality and the pacing of a porn movie.
It seems that the people who were playng the newly risen (trust me, they're NOT zombies) never watched a zombie movie, or the director had his head up his ass. It could be a combination of the two.
The gore wasn't too bad, but where the hell are the people eating zombies? These zombies just grab your limbs and rip them off. Too bad this added a comic effect to the movie.
This brings me to the newly risen. There are several reasons why I refuse to call them zombies. First, one minute they were shuffling around and the next minute they were running at full speed. Second, one of them talked. When the hell did zombies learn to talk? This is easily the worst thing in ANY zombie movies. Lastly, they were reduced to drug addicts looking for their next fix. there was a scene where they were all holding their arms out for more serum so they could stay alive for another hour. Who writes this nonsense? The mortician says that his newly risen allies have been trained to obey him, and he also debriefs them on their larceny missions. Yeah, you read that right and I wish I was kidding.
This movie is definitely NOT recommended.
"I *meant* to make a bad movie! You just don't get it!" Riiiiight.
krachtm26 April 2011
I thought I'd take a chance on this movie, since it sounded like a ripoff of Re-Animator, and, hey, if it's ripping off movies I like, then maybe I'll like this, too. Unfortunately, that was *not* the case, and I must severely caution others who might be drawn in, like I was. I could only stand to watch about five minutes of this movie, so I can only critique those first few minutes (and, wow, were they BAD).
First off, the director lingers way too long on useless shots. The first scene is that of a framing shot, Quint High School. OK, fine. Then the camera zooms in to the name of the high school, which you could already see before: Quint High School. Uh, yeah. I got that already. And the shot just lingers and lingers and... ah, finally, we move on to the next scene, except now it's another zoom of "SCIENCE LAB" which lingers almost as long. Holy crap! Is the director afraid that he doesn't make each of these shots last a full minute that we won't be able to read his stupid signs? Maybe we're supposed to be drunk, high, and stupid... because I think the entire cast and crew probably were. The acting was so horrible, the incidental music so insipid, and the directing so incompetent, I couldn't even last much longer than those first few scenes.
Some people will claim that this movie was meant to be bad or that it was done "tongue in cheek". No. There's no excuse for ineptitude of this magnitude. Either you can act or you can't. Either you can direct or you can't. Hiding behind an excuse of "You just don't get it! I was *trying* to do a bad job, for the laughs!" is total crap. Re-Animator was a legitimately good movie, because the people making it had talent. They knew how to frame shots, had comic timing, and knew how to walk the fine line between comic overacting and simply acting poorly. The people who made this movie? They had no clue.
I hope that everyone involved in this movie is blacklisted and never works in film again.
First off, the director lingers way too long on useless shots. The first scene is that of a framing shot, Quint High School. OK, fine. Then the camera zooms in to the name of the high school, which you could already see before: Quint High School. Uh, yeah. I got that already. And the shot just lingers and lingers and... ah, finally, we move on to the next scene, except now it's another zoom of "SCIENCE LAB" which lingers almost as long. Holy crap! Is the director afraid that he doesn't make each of these shots last a full minute that we won't be able to read his stupid signs? Maybe we're supposed to be drunk, high, and stupid... because I think the entire cast and crew probably were. The acting was so horrible, the incidental music so insipid, and the directing so incompetent, I couldn't even last much longer than those first few scenes.
Some people will claim that this movie was meant to be bad or that it was done "tongue in cheek". No. There's no excuse for ineptitude of this magnitude. Either you can act or you can't. Either you can direct or you can't. Hiding behind an excuse of "You just don't get it! I was *trying* to do a bad job, for the laughs!" is total crap. Re-Animator was a legitimately good movie, because the people making it had talent. They knew how to frame shots, had comic timing, and knew how to walk the fine line between comic overacting and simply acting poorly. The people who made this movie? They had no clue.
I hope that everyone involved in this movie is blacklisted and never works in film again.
Run...run and don't look back.
srguapoguy27 February 2006
Normally I don't post to IMDb, but I feel like I have a moral obligation in this case. I like zombie flicks and I have a high tolerance for budget movies, but this one is BAD. You can tell in the first 5 minutes that it's going to be insultingly horrible. If zombies playing catch sounds scary then this is the movie for you. If amateur acting (like random people off the street quality) appeals to you, this is the movie for you. If seeing a down-and-out Jeff Fahey excites you, this is the movie for you. I could go on and on. Don't reward the industry by watching this scat, you'll only encourage more like it.
I am not an extreme person, but this movie deserves negative stars.
I am not an extreme person, but this movie deserves negative stars.
Fahey has hit rock bottom!
udar5524 May 2006
You've heard of bottom of the barrel? Well, lift up that barrel, dig about 20 feet into the ground and that is where you will find CORPSES. The combination of me, On Demand and the listing of a Jeff Fahey movie did not bode well this evening. To be honest, I only made it 20 minutes in before hitting the "stop" button. But I want to throw this out here as a warning to EVERYONE! Do not watch this movie. It is so bad and poorly done that I actually couldn't believe Fahey was in it. And brother has been in some prime garbage before. The sad thing is director Rolfe Kanefsky made a film I thought was pretty darn good (the spoof THERE'S SOMETHING OUT THERE). This one, about a mortician who re-animates the dead (with dayglo fluid, ugh), is about as bad as it gets with lousy make-up, flat as a board camera-work and terrible acting. Like I said, DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE!!!
Laugh or Cry
iruon_itauol6 July 2006
1. OK Jeff fahey is in it well he must be desperate.
2. This is no horror it's Comedy
3. Only watch this if u are stoned
Íf u are gonna see this movie see it as a comedy and u might have a good laugh. I watched this movie like a year ago and i remember that when we where watching it we only said omg LOL, u GOTTA be serious. We thought we where gonna watch a horror movie and we saw one of the baddest movie's ever. But later i thought it was quite funny if u look at it as a comedy.
So if u wanna see some low budget zombie crap. Just light up your joint and laugh...
2. This is no horror it's Comedy
3. Only watch this if u are stoned
Íf u are gonna see this movie see it as a comedy and u might have a good laugh. I watched this movie like a year ago and i remember that when we where watching it we only said omg LOL, u GOTTA be serious. We thought we where gonna watch a horror movie and we saw one of the baddest movie's ever. But later i thought it was quite funny if u look at it as a comedy.
So if u wanna see some low budget zombie crap. Just light up your joint and laugh...
Looks like it was directed and edited by a 14-year old
ik-267 August 2005
I can be short and simple about this one:
Poor storyline; poor acting; poor background sound quality; reasonable video quality (BUT: like it was done with a cheap movie editor on a PC, slow and poor camera work (altough sometimes funny), with many scenes that take to much time).
Especially this last flaw, convinced me that this movie was created for a truly dumb audience. Or that the editing was done by a 14-year old kid.
In the intro you see a red line mentioning 'A Rolfe Kanefsky Flick'. Now, I don't know what a flick is, I could look it up, but for this movie it turns out to be a synonym for 'not worth to be seen by anyone except when you want to see a really boring movie'.
This could have been a better movie experience, if they made it shorter, like 20 to 30 minutes.
Poor storyline; poor acting; poor background sound quality; reasonable video quality (BUT: like it was done with a cheap movie editor on a PC, slow and poor camera work (altough sometimes funny), with many scenes that take to much time).
Especially this last flaw, convinced me that this movie was created for a truly dumb audience. Or that the editing was done by a 14-year old kid.
In the intro you see a red line mentioning 'A Rolfe Kanefsky Flick'. Now, I don't know what a flick is, I could look it up, but for this movie it turns out to be a synonym for 'not worth to be seen by anyone except when you want to see a really boring movie'.
This could have been a better movie experience, if they made it shorter, like 20 to 30 minutes.
Kanefsky Never Lets Me Down
danthewrestlingmanorigin22 November 2006
Rolfe Kanefsky never lets me down. The man knows how to make a fun, good time, B-Horror Party movie. Tiffany Shepis is arguably the most talented scream queen working today. She's beautiful, funny, and a genuinely talented actress, that doesn't take herself to seriously and isn't afraid to look less then glamorous in a movie like this. Corpses is not for everyone, it has purposely campy acting and humor, so if you don't like this type of film, don't bother. All in all I had a good time with this, it wasn't as good as Kanefsky's The Hazing, but if you liked that, you should like this. There were some decent death scenes for a low budget film, and in one of the all time hilarious B movie moments Jeff Fahey of Lawnmower Man fame channels Bruce Campbell and Dirty Harry in an absolutely drop dead hilarious zombie killing rampage. My only slight gripe is the film started off a little slow , and I don't want to sound like a pervert, but tiffany didn't get naked. Corpses has been unfairly blasted on here, and as long as you like campy humor, some creative kills', and a sprinkling of T and A, you will enjoy Corpses. Just remember it's very campy, and silly at times.
Where Death Is Just the Beginning
claudio_carvalho22 October 2007
The undertaker Fred (Robert Donovan) is bankrupted and misses his former wife Helen (Belinda Bonini). She has left him and is going to marry Captain Winston (Jeff Fahey), whose daughter Rhonda (Tiffany Shepis) is the girlfriend of Fred's assistant Jerry Gordon (Stephen Williams). Fred has accidentally developed an embalming formula that brings the dead back to life and he is able to control the zombies because they need a dose every hour to stay alive, otherwise they die. When Fred receives an eviction letter from the bank that intends to build a mall in the location of his funeral home with the agreement of Helen, he decides to use his zombies to steal money, pay the bank, achieve power and get Helen back. However, when Jerry accidentally drops the fluid of his formula, he loses the control of the situation in his mortuary and the dead seek revenge against him.
"Corpses" is a cult-movie absolutely underrated in IMDb. The gore comedy follows the style of Peter Jackson's "Braindead", with lots of black humor and blood. There are excellent lines along the story, and I loved the character of Rhonda Winston, responsible for some of the most hilarious moments, like for example, when she says to Helen that thinking does not suit with her obnoxious stepmother. This B-movie is a great entertainment and I really liked it a lot. My vote is seven.
Title (Brazil): "Dr. Morte" ("Dr. Death")
"Corpses" is a cult-movie absolutely underrated in IMDb. The gore comedy follows the style of Peter Jackson's "Braindead", with lots of black humor and blood. There are excellent lines along the story, and I loved the character of Rhonda Winston, responsible for some of the most hilarious moments, like for example, when she says to Helen that thinking does not suit with her obnoxious stepmother. This B-movie is a great entertainment and I really liked it a lot. My vote is seven.
Title (Brazil): "Dr. Morte" ("Dr. Death")
Nobrainer horror with adult entertainment acting quality
Filmfan-NL1 March 2005
Warning: Spoilers
It's so bad it's almost hilariously funny. Almost. Because it's not. I have truly never seen worse acting/actors than the idiots running around in this waste of film, heck I've seen porn stars acting better. Just watch the undead fellows in the first scene, or the guy and girl quarreling in a coffin in the next and you will have wet your pants or hit the off switch by then. (This line could be seen as a spoiler so to be on the safe side I ticked the box) I'm not gonna go into the story, you can figure that out for yourself. If you want to sit this out, make sure you have friends there, a case of brewskis and crisps, beer nuts and what have you. In a group his can be enjoyed, as you can re-enact the dialogs yourselves and outperform the original cast! Feel famous! SKIP this one if you are into serious horror films. Somehow this genre never seems to be able to shed the idiot image it got way back in time. Too often pulp like this sees the light of day. Waste of time and money. (1 out of 10)
Zombies, ya either love em or hate em
darth_nax2 March 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I sometimes wonder why certain types of people even bother to watch movies like this. They know they don't like the B movie stuff so why bother.
If your into the whole B- movie scene then this will be a fun watch. Nothing original, just a little Night of the Living Dead and Reanimator with plenty of T&A, violence and gore thrown in.
Start with one undertaker, his assistant, his assistants hot girlfriend and wicked stepmother. Add revenge and the desire for money and power and watch the whole thing explode. It could've been done to a lot better effect plot wise but it works. And BTW, the stepmother is the ex of the undertaker and the hot girlfriend's dad is the chief of police.
If your into the whole B- movie scene then this will be a fun watch. Nothing original, just a little Night of the Living Dead and Reanimator with plenty of T&A, violence and gore thrown in.
Start with one undertaker, his assistant, his assistants hot girlfriend and wicked stepmother. Add revenge and the desire for money and power and watch the whole thing explode. It could've been done to a lot better effect plot wise but it works. And BTW, the stepmother is the ex of the undertaker and the hot girlfriend's dad is the chief of police.
Not much to recommend here
Red-Barracuda24 November 2012
A mortician learns how to re-animate corpses with a serum he has developed. His mortuary is debt-ridden and due to close, while his ex-wife has moved in with the local sheriff. The mortician wants money and he wants revenge, so he sends out his 'army' of zombies to wreak havoc on the town.
I suppose a film needs a selling point. And the draw here is Jeff Fahey. It's not much of a selling point but it is something I guess. Fahey is most famous for playing the retarded gardener in The Lawnmower Man - a film that seems really quite good in comparison to this. This is a horror comedy - usually a dreaded sub-genre and with good reason. And here the rule holds, as this is neither scary nor funny. It's basically a very low rent re-working of the Re-Animator template. It's passably diverting though and not too hard to get through. So not a complete dead loss.
I suppose a film needs a selling point. And the draw here is Jeff Fahey. It's not much of a selling point but it is something I guess. Fahey is most famous for playing the retarded gardener in The Lawnmower Man - a film that seems really quite good in comparison to this. This is a horror comedy - usually a dreaded sub-genre and with good reason. And here the rule holds, as this is neither scary nor funny. It's basically a very low rent re-working of the Re-Animator template. It's passably diverting though and not too hard to get through. So not a complete dead loss.
Great Great Great... NOT
jimmyhoffa9920 June 2005
Warning: Spoilers
This movie actually has three awesome characters. First there is a madman that also is a genius and have a thing for zombies. The second ruler of this flick is the dead biker guy... he jumps and do all kind of crazy stuff. And last but not least we have the cop that after finding out about the blood thirsty zombie rampage that is going on in the town goes berserk and declares a one man war against the biker and his zombie mates. YEAH! or maybe not... This was a scary movie, but it wasn't the plot that mad it scary but the lack of fx and the very poor acting. It is worth watching, and will give you a good laugh and it contains nudity which some people seem to enjoy. We thought it would never end. J and J
Cheap Re-Animator knockoff.
DigitalRevenantX710 August 2015
Fred, a down-on-his-luck mortician, is trying to make an improved embalming fluid when he accidentally invents a serum that, when injected into a corpse, revives it for an hour. He decides to use his new power to raise an army of the dead & help him save his business from being foreclosed thanks to his evil ex-wife Helen, who is now married to the local chief of police. But at the same time, the chief's daughter, Rhonda, is having a relationship with Fred's assistant Jerry, who is unaware of Fred's activities. As zombies begin flooding the town, the young lovers find themselves in the midst of a small war.
Corpses is an ultra-cheap knockoff of the 1985 classic RE-ANIMATOR, made a good nineteen years after & having a similar plot. Both films feature a protagonist – Re-Animator had a brilliant medical student, while Corpses has a mortician – who invents a serum that can raise the dead. But unlike Re-Animator's serum, which was so powerful that it can keep the dead undead indefinitely & can even revive severed body parts, here it is only capable of reanimation for up to an hour. This is probably an attempt to create some difficulties for the narrative.
The film might have a decent story & plenty of cheerful dark humour (my favourite kind of humour), but the execution is decidedly average. The actors give it their best shot, although Jeff Fahey, who has starred in a LOT of cheap films over the years, makes a slightly mediocre hero, despite delivering a decent performance (as usual). The zombies' rampage is funny but in a dumb way & has nothing new to add to the zombie mythology – there is nothing here that will get zombie fans raving – but the film does have enough black humour to keep undead fans watching. The film is somewhat defeated by an opaque ending that doesn't make sense.
Corpses is an ultra-cheap knockoff of the 1985 classic RE-ANIMATOR, made a good nineteen years after & having a similar plot. Both films feature a protagonist – Re-Animator had a brilliant medical student, while Corpses has a mortician – who invents a serum that can raise the dead. But unlike Re-Animator's serum, which was so powerful that it can keep the dead undead indefinitely & can even revive severed body parts, here it is only capable of reanimation for up to an hour. This is probably an attempt to create some difficulties for the narrative.
The film might have a decent story & plenty of cheerful dark humour (my favourite kind of humour), but the execution is decidedly average. The actors give it their best shot, although Jeff Fahey, who has starred in a LOT of cheap films over the years, makes a slightly mediocre hero, despite delivering a decent performance (as usual). The zombies' rampage is funny but in a dumb way & has nothing new to add to the zombie mythology – there is nothing here that will get zombie fans raving – but the film does have enough black humour to keep undead fans watching. The film is somewhat defeated by an opaque ending that doesn't make sense.
A ridiculous zombie comedy that has Jeff Fahey in it.
WisdomsHammer26 October 2018
I had to write a review after reading some of the bad ones here. This isn't a good movie and it's not really meant to be.
I don't even think a synopsis is necessary here. This is a ridiculous, campy, b-grade, zombie horror-comedy and if that's your bag, you'll probably get a kick out of this. If you take this thing at all seriously, you're watching the wrong movie. You'll know in the first five minutes (which actually might be my favorite part of the movie) whether you're going to like it or not. Oh, and Jeff Fahey is in it, if that matters.
Best served with a group of like-minded people able to laugh at bad jokes and bad movies.
I don't even think a synopsis is necessary here. This is a ridiculous, campy, b-grade, zombie horror-comedy and if that's your bag, you'll probably get a kick out of this. If you take this thing at all seriously, you're watching the wrong movie. You'll know in the first five minutes (which actually might be my favorite part of the movie) whether you're going to like it or not. Oh, and Jeff Fahey is in it, if that matters.
Best served with a group of like-minded people able to laugh at bad jokes and bad movies.
Rehash of Zom/Com Elements
Reviews_of_the_Dead31 March 2023
This is a movie that I didn't know until my sister brought it up. She watched it as I'm guessing due to working through the filmography of Tiffany Shepis. I decided to check this out due to wanting to be a well-rounded film reviewer and check out lesser talked about ones. I came into this one blind aside from knowing what I've shared here.
Synopsis: through pure luck, small town mortician Fred (Robert Donavan) has discovered a serum that can revive a corpse for an hour at a time. Realizing the possibilities of his discovery, Fred plans to resurrect an army of the living dead to do his evil bidding.
We start this off seeing this group of baseball players. They are played by Tyler Jolley, Tim Trobec and Jim Whipple. They draw the attention of Christopher Barnes (Khris Kaneff) who is a security guard. We will then see that they're zombies and attack him when he takes their ball away.
From this incident, we go to a funeral home. Jerry Gordon (Stephen W. Williams) is there with Rhonda Winston (Tiffany Shepis). She wants to have sex in a casket and he can't get into it. She is rebellious as her father is the chief of police, Captain Winston (Jeff Fahey). There are tensions here as her mother passed away and he's remarried. To complicate it further, he is married to Helen (Melinda Bonini) who is the ex-wife to the man who runs this funeral home, Fred Withers. He comes in and scolds Jerry as he isn't performing his tasks. He also doesn't like him bringing around Rhonda with who her father is and who he is married to.
The movie then alerts to us to the financial issues of this mortuary. Helen is spearheading to get it closed so developers can put in a mall. What is interesting here is that her husband is helping, but he's going by the letter of the law. Fred is behind on payments and there isn't much that Captain Winston can do. The zombies we saw in the beginning come back. Fred needs to make sure that Jerry isn't around. There are more of them that are also created. Fred uses them to create mayhem and collect money to save this place. He also seems to be wanting to impress his ex to get her back. This creates a lot of turmoil when there are more zombies than serum to keep them alive.
That is where I'm going to leave my recap and introduction to the characters. This is an odd movie to me. This is listed as comedy over horror and that makes a lot of sense. There isn't the highest budget and what they're doing is playing on the fact that there are others zom/coms out there. It references movies like Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things, Dawn of the Dead and the serum looks like what they used in Re-Animator. I'd say that this is self-aware and out to have fun.
Now that I've established that, this also feels like Night of the Living Dead 3D. That came out after this one so I'm wondering if it borrowed from this movie or not. Similarities there are that we have struggling mortuaries where the dead are being kept there. This one has an experiment that is partially the cause. I do think the prequel to NotLD 3D adds that element, but I don't fully remember. This is a mad scientist movie with Fred and his misguided attempt to save his business.
Where I'll go from there is the comedy. This feels like it is taking things from Return of the Living Dead. The zombies here can talk and reason. I'll be honest, it didn't necessarily work for me. There are puns that made me chuckle. The biggest issue that I'm having is that I've referenced movies that did the elements I've brought up better than here. I follow the adage to not bring up a better movie when taking about a lesser version which hurts this one. It doesn't do enough original for me for this to stand out.
With that taken care of, I'll go to the acting. It isn't good, even from actors that I respect. I don't necessarily think it is them though. It feels like this was played for laughs so the acting reflects that. Fahey is fine here. He's probably the best. My problem with him is where he goes for the climax. It fits the character, but I was checked out then. Shepis seems like she's having fun and we see her in her underwear. That is about the extent there. Williams is fine and probably fits the most with his character. Donavan comes off as a bumbling mad scientist okay. Bonini is here to be a villain of sorts and showcase her body. The rest are average at best. We do get nudity so there is that.
All that is left then is with the filmmaking. I don't think this is a badly made movie by any stretch. The cinematography is fine. The look of the zombies is solid. I'd say that the blood and gore we get works. The soundtrack also fit for what was needed. None of this just stands out so that doesn't save this since the story isn't strong.
In conclusion, this is fine. If you are into lower budget zombie movies than I think you might have fun with this. My biggest issue is that this is self-aware and borrowing elements that are done elsewhere. Since it struggles to showcase them, it makes me think of those other works and I'd rather watch them. I can't recommend this movie outside of that.
My Rating: 3 out of 10.
Synopsis: through pure luck, small town mortician Fred (Robert Donavan) has discovered a serum that can revive a corpse for an hour at a time. Realizing the possibilities of his discovery, Fred plans to resurrect an army of the living dead to do his evil bidding.
We start this off seeing this group of baseball players. They are played by Tyler Jolley, Tim Trobec and Jim Whipple. They draw the attention of Christopher Barnes (Khris Kaneff) who is a security guard. We will then see that they're zombies and attack him when he takes their ball away.
From this incident, we go to a funeral home. Jerry Gordon (Stephen W. Williams) is there with Rhonda Winston (Tiffany Shepis). She wants to have sex in a casket and he can't get into it. She is rebellious as her father is the chief of police, Captain Winston (Jeff Fahey). There are tensions here as her mother passed away and he's remarried. To complicate it further, he is married to Helen (Melinda Bonini) who is the ex-wife to the man who runs this funeral home, Fred Withers. He comes in and scolds Jerry as he isn't performing his tasks. He also doesn't like him bringing around Rhonda with who her father is and who he is married to.
The movie then alerts to us to the financial issues of this mortuary. Helen is spearheading to get it closed so developers can put in a mall. What is interesting here is that her husband is helping, but he's going by the letter of the law. Fred is behind on payments and there isn't much that Captain Winston can do. The zombies we saw in the beginning come back. Fred needs to make sure that Jerry isn't around. There are more of them that are also created. Fred uses them to create mayhem and collect money to save this place. He also seems to be wanting to impress his ex to get her back. This creates a lot of turmoil when there are more zombies than serum to keep them alive.
That is where I'm going to leave my recap and introduction to the characters. This is an odd movie to me. This is listed as comedy over horror and that makes a lot of sense. There isn't the highest budget and what they're doing is playing on the fact that there are others zom/coms out there. It references movies like Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things, Dawn of the Dead and the serum looks like what they used in Re-Animator. I'd say that this is self-aware and out to have fun.
Now that I've established that, this also feels like Night of the Living Dead 3D. That came out after this one so I'm wondering if it borrowed from this movie or not. Similarities there are that we have struggling mortuaries where the dead are being kept there. This one has an experiment that is partially the cause. I do think the prequel to NotLD 3D adds that element, but I don't fully remember. This is a mad scientist movie with Fred and his misguided attempt to save his business.
Where I'll go from there is the comedy. This feels like it is taking things from Return of the Living Dead. The zombies here can talk and reason. I'll be honest, it didn't necessarily work for me. There are puns that made me chuckle. The biggest issue that I'm having is that I've referenced movies that did the elements I've brought up better than here. I follow the adage to not bring up a better movie when taking about a lesser version which hurts this one. It doesn't do enough original for me for this to stand out.
With that taken care of, I'll go to the acting. It isn't good, even from actors that I respect. I don't necessarily think it is them though. It feels like this was played for laughs so the acting reflects that. Fahey is fine here. He's probably the best. My problem with him is where he goes for the climax. It fits the character, but I was checked out then. Shepis seems like she's having fun and we see her in her underwear. That is about the extent there. Williams is fine and probably fits the most with his character. Donavan comes off as a bumbling mad scientist okay. Bonini is here to be a villain of sorts and showcase her body. The rest are average at best. We do get nudity so there is that.
All that is left then is with the filmmaking. I don't think this is a badly made movie by any stretch. The cinematography is fine. The look of the zombies is solid. I'd say that the blood and gore we get works. The soundtrack also fit for what was needed. None of this just stands out so that doesn't save this since the story isn't strong.
In conclusion, this is fine. If you are into lower budget zombie movies than I think you might have fun with this. My biggest issue is that this is self-aware and borrowing elements that are done elsewhere. Since it struggles to showcase them, it makes me think of those other works and I'd rather watch them. I can't recommend this movie outside of that.
My Rating: 3 out of 10.
Just a fun B-movie
DrDoLittle9929 December 2006
OK, so I am a Jeff Fahey fan. Sure it's not his best movie and maybe ranks in the bottom 2%, but it was fun to watch. A little, or should i say brief, T&A here and there. Lorielle New made a reasonable hooker. Tiffany Shepis should of had some soft core added in, the movie already had the MPAA Rating for it. I enjoyed the arms being torn off here and there, but why, they either dropped them or just carries the around for props. The most solid character was the ex-wife/wicked stepmother/hot girlfriend (Melinda Bonini) that many of us can relate to. I had read comments about the glow-in-the-dark serum but, hey, what else would would you use to re-animate a corpse? Yes, the zombies were really bad. When did zombies start running? Hmm, running zombies. Will they catch on? That could make for some interesting action in the future given a good plot. I rated this movie on humor alone.
A Lot of Fun! C'mon guys, let's rate it for what it is...!
lathe-of-heaven20 July 2012
I felt that I should write a brief review after seeing all the crappy ones about this film. Look, this isn't SUPPOSED to be Shakespeare, okay...? An argument that I use CONSTANTLY is compared to all the voluminous drivel out there I honestly feel that this movie was done well, within the confines of it's budget and subject matter.
First off, this kind of film is really hard to pull off; obviously 'REANIMATOR' is the absolute reigning master of this genre, hands down! Now this one is not nearly as clever, but in a toned down kind of way you DO get some pretty good humour throughout and some great lines, really! So, for the kind of movie that this OBVIOUSLY is, I feel that it was done very well and the director was able to bring out above average performances, even from the zombies, and from all involved. I LOVED Fahey's deadpan lines; GREAT stuff!!!
First off, this kind of film is really hard to pull off; obviously 'REANIMATOR' is the absolute reigning master of this genre, hands down! Now this one is not nearly as clever, but in a toned down kind of way you DO get some pretty good humour throughout and some great lines, really! So, for the kind of movie that this OBVIOUSLY is, I feel that it was done very well and the director was able to bring out above average performances, even from the zombies, and from all involved. I LOVED Fahey's deadpan lines; GREAT stuff!!!
Decent Zombie Flick Not That bad
ganewla25 February 2006
Warning: Spoilers
I thought some of the parts like zombies talking being able to act as humans do and such was kinda retarded and the end of the movie was pretty generic with the dude and girl being one of them i think so and it was a kinda lame but OK i saw it coming ending the movie itself lacked in visuals and the story line was kinda lame but it was executed pretty well given that you can tell that it was..very..low budget , but just because its low budget doesn't mean it sucks aka..Undead (2004) this was a great movie very low budget for a zombie movie but great while this is no Ramero flick or anything it still wont hurt you to give this movie a chance because you mite be surprised.
What is a B rated film?
jacman200818 December 2012
There's not much to add that others haven't. I just want you to remember that Roger and Ebert (film critics from the 1980s and 1990s) never even bothered reviewing what is known as a "B rated film". Why so serious? Is it bad? Dude, a B rated film is supposed to be...it is supposed to be intentionally BAD, and worse.
I hope you can see what typically draws in it's true target audience, in any event. I suspect the true audience are ages 9 and up...the kids who need little to amuse them; the ones who are still running scared today from the man with the iron claw for a hand. Horror can be insanely funny in the hands of a good film maker, and ingenious when such talent like Tiffany Shepis graces one of these babies. Ms. Shepis truly understands what makes B rated horrors become cult classics.
Once again, this film is BAD, and even worse than that. It is supposed to be. This is a B rated film.
I hope you can see what typically draws in it's true target audience, in any event. I suspect the true audience are ages 9 and up...the kids who need little to amuse them; the ones who are still running scared today from the man with the iron claw for a hand. Horror can be insanely funny in the hands of a good film maker, and ingenious when such talent like Tiffany Shepis graces one of these babies. Ms. Shepis truly understands what makes B rated horrors become cult classics.
Once again, this film is BAD, and even worse than that. It is supposed to be. This is a B rated film.
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