Dead and Loving It

John Pata is one of the nicest guys around. That’s the dirty truth.

He doesn’t have a bad bone in him and always offers a warm smile if you’re talking to him. There’s a twinkle in his eye that’s adds to his boyish charm. You wouldn’t even know that he likes to make zombie flicks.

They’re gory. They’re demented. A true horror fan’s delight.

But May 14 is his day. At the Reeve Union on the Oshkosh university campus, striking the hour of 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., he offered two free showings of his latest thirty-minute film “Better Off Undead” which tells of three survivors holed up inside a house and how they deal with dead people walking the streets. Or walking in their own house. Produced by Newbeat/Head Trauma productions.

This film is a definite representation of Oshkosh. And there’s nothing wrong with it. You can tell that Pata fuels his movie with so much passion for horror movies that it’s contagious. You have a lot of fun too. And it’s a damn funny movie too. With some smart dialogue to go with it.

In some ways Oshkosh becomes mythic in the film. The city becomes a character of its own.
It’s nice to see all the familiar settings of Oshkosh as I’ve been a long-time resident of the area since I’ve moved here in 1980 as a young toddler. Those images of buildings and streets become engraved in Pata’s film. The cornerstones of Oshkosh such as the Grand Opera House thrusts into the movie. But none of it feels forced. The scenery blends in with the film.

Drew Schuldt, Dale DeVries and Jordan Brown star as the trio of unlucky survivors who bicker, swear and make unencouraging remarks to each other while the mass population of zombies grow in the Oshkosh landscape. They make the heart and soul of the film. In some ways the zombies are the heroes too as they’re equally as funny. In a warped sort of way. Don’t miss Lee Marohn as the zombie making leering, suggestive faces in the House of Heroes door window. He licks the glass too.

DeVries provides his stunning, punkish voice with his band the Lemurs for the title theme music. The tight direction and the music is one of the highlights on of the film and gives “Better Off Undead” its own unique character. The Lemurs is an established band in Oshkosh. Another very excellent and talented group established in the Oshkosh music scene is Lead Me Not who helped to install their own metal style and gothic mixture to the film’s presence.

You might find two members of Lead Me Not as part of the hordes of zombies filling up the streets of Oshkosh. T.J. Stark, guitarist of Lead Me Not, lends his talented musical intuition by coming up with three different soundtrack songs. The thumping, pulsing music twists and burns with some of the scenes when there’s a zombie takeover in the house where the survivors find brief refuge. But not for long.

It’s a creative stab at the horror field done on a shoestring budget. It goes back to the good old flesh munching days of zombie movies. But Pata does bring something new to the now tired genre. He has something to say in here.

And the dead comes back to feed again. That's okay by us, isn't it?

Many of the horror scenes involve zombies ripping off flesh from the victims. There are splinters of gore everywhere. Blood splatters. But you’ll be too busy being glued to what’s going on in the movie for you to look away.

Don’t miss Scott Dercks, owner of House of Heroes, towards the very ending. It’s a riot. And I do mean it. It's much funnier seeing him wear a necktie.

Pata has brought back the zombie movies in true form. And there’s no doubt he loves what he does. And that passion still has plenty of fire that’ll make him stand out above all others in making zombie movies fun again.