Jey Crisfar, Gio Black Peter, Guido Sommer

A young zombie named Otto appears on a remote highway. He has no idea where he came from or where he is going. After hitching a ride to Berlin and nesting in an abandoned amusement park, he begins to ...( read more  read more... )explore the city. Soon he is discovered by underground filmmaker Medea Yarn, who begins to make a documentary about him with the support of her girlfriend, Hella Bent, and her brother Adolf, who operates the camera. Meanwhile, Medea is trying to finish "Up with Dead People," the epic political-porno-zombie movie that she has been working on for years. She convinces its star, Fritz Fritze, to allow the vulnerable Otto to stay in his guest bedroom. When Otto discovers that there is a wallet in his back pocket that contains information about his past, before he was dead, he begins to remember a few details, including memories of his ex-boyfriend, Rudolf. He arranges to meet him at the schoolyard where they met, with devastating results.

Flixster Users

53% liked it

787 ratings

Critics

35% liked it

17 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 35 min.

Directed by: Bruce La Bruce

Release Date: January 19, 2008

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DVD Release Date: February 10, 2009

Stats: 147 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (147)


  • September 22, 2009
    This film does a terrific job at eliminating audience members - weeding out the weak. Do not watch this film if you can't handle: gratuitous gore of the intestine eating sort, explicit gay sex (between zombies using fresh improvised gashes as sexual orifices), frequent cross-cutt...( read more)ing of "reality" and "film", and dedicating major segments of the film to an art house indie director criticizing art house and non-mainstream film.

    But if you're a weirdo like me and think all of that sounds like a hella good time, you will or will not be disappointed ;)

    Some things that are truly outstanding here: the director character's lover is constantly encapsulated in a bubble of silent film; the lengths to which this director goes to be "avant garde" and the heights to which those attempts accidentally succeed and the hilarious depths to which they intentionally fail. Otto, the main zombie character, is constantly battling for a sense of identity, and his story juxtaposed and interweaving with this director's vision (Up With Dead People is the title of her film) makes the titling very apt (which the title itself is a wink-wink nudge-nudge satirical jab at fringe cinema).

    Ultimately, this is not so much a film about zombies as it is a film about film; the zombie aspect is merely used as fuel for probing the subject of identity in both the personal and social arena.
  • June 30, 2009
    More than anything else, I think this film spoofs pretentious film directors who only like to make artsy-fartsy documentaries where they deal with more or less deep subject matters (being a zombie) through what they consider to be really thought-provoking means (gay porn).

    Don'...( read more)t despair during the first half an hour, the film becomes much clearer towards the end.
  • March 12, 2009
    I don't know. It's seems to be a satire (or even lampooning) of "counter culture" and the underground art that results from it, but you could definitely file this flick under counter-culture art-film. So it is what it's making fun of, in a way. That's not to say that's a bad thin...( read more)g, just I guess a funny thing. Speaking of funny, this film is heavily peppered with some great comedy, that's not so much laugh-out-loud, but the kind you think in your head "this is fucking hilarious". Plus, under the surface and even under the under-surface there's something going on with this flick, and all three levels keep the film interesting.
    Warning, however, this ain't for everyone. You're not getting a stable narrative and this is only going to hurt the average horror fans brains, or piss them the hell off. So do some research prior to watching the film about the director.
  • December 2, 2009
    A good portayal of modern consumist societies and capitalism, and the effect it has on people. Still a little too disgusting and gut-eating-scenes for my taste. Of the three Burce La Bruce films I've seen, this is the one I enjoyed the least.
  • November 30, 2009
    nice, but I still prefer The Raspberry Reich.
  • November 8, 2009
    A wonderful plague
    We're here, we're queer and we are....
    Going to eat you!
  • September 23, 2009
    Twisted, disturbing and kind of stupid at first. But I really enjoyed the ending, how the story developed and how it was wrapped up.
    Some parts were very funny and clever, but most of it was unbearably boring, such as Medea's scenes.
    Not a bad movie, but not the one for me. Most...( read more) of it was pointless.
  • September 16, 2009
    Pretentious, strange & funny... gay zombie sex, yummy lol.
  • July 26, 2009
    if you tought that porn and
  • July 12, 2009
    Quite possibly one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

Comments


  • stevewyllie1
    May 16, 2008
    i was intrigued by the synopsis for this film and it was curiousity that motivated me to watch this film,however do not view very late as i as it is quite a deep film or was that just me???!!!!if interested check out my profile for a more detailed opinion of this film...or better still go and view it for yourself...warning though not for weak stomached and the prude(s) within!!!!

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