‘Amigo Undead’ review
There are a lot of zombies, ghosts, sacred Indian burial grounds, and horror films in general out that expose the scary side of the supernatural. Amigo Undead does none of that. Instead, it offers a comical spin to the genre with random characters and even more random deaths. It’s not meant to be taken seriously, and really isn’t. But, it is pretty funny to watch straight-lace Randall Park going up against racism and evil.
Amigo Undead tells the story of Kevin Ostorwski (played by Park), a Korean adoptee, who works in a secured job as a financial adviser and has always kept to himself. His brother Norm (Steve Agee), on the other hand, is basically a loser who uses up his inheritance money to buy useless land in the desert with his friends – the loyal Jovan (Ed Galvez), the dim-witted druggie Ian (Josh Fadem),and racist Wayne (Michael McCafferty). Wanting to celebrate his 40th birthday with his little brother, Norm coaxes Kevin to coming by telling him he has a fatal disease – diabetes.
Kevin gets more than he bargains for when Jovan accidentally chokes on a hot dog and dies. They plan to take him to the hospital until Wayne’s gun goes off and shoots Jovan in the chest – making it look like they actually killed him. They all decide to bury him into the woods. Little do they know, they buried their friend on sacred Native American grounds, causing a spirit to take over his body and goes off on a slow-paced killing spree.
The gang try many times to try to kill the spirit – shooting him, lighting him up on fire, and putting a meat cleaver in his head, but to no avail. They must work together in order to stop this demon. Then it gets ridiculous from here. The most ridiculous death consisted of a man getting his intestines pulled out of his body and then used to choke him. The whole scene was awkward, until one of the characters made the comment “That’s unnecessary” and made the entire thing hilarious.
There are a lot of moments like that throughout the movie where a simple, yet hilarious comment changed the whole dynamic of the scene. It may not be your typical horror films, but it will make you laugh so hard.
The screenplay, co-written by director Ryan Nagata and George Edelman, played on the strengths of the main leads and the wacky antics of fighting against an evil spirit using Home Alone techniques and hiring a local Native American to do stereotypical things to drive the spirit out. It may not be a blockbuster hit, but it’s sure going to make you laugh.
Amigo Undead is available now on all VOD/digital platforms.
