Dead Shack – Toronto After Dark 2017
Teenage friends fight back against their zombie-hoarding neighbour in Dead Shack. Jason (Matthew Nelson-Mahood) joins his best friend Colin (Gabriel LaBelle), his sister Summer (Lizzie Boys), their father Roger (Donavon Stinson) and his girlfriend Lisa (Valerie Tian) on a trip to an isolated cabin. While walking though the woods, Jason, Colin and Summer witness their neighbour (Lauren Holly) kill a couple bros and feed them to her zombified family. After being spotted, the free friends have to arm up and protect themselves from their neighbour and her zombie horde.
Dead Shack is a horror-comedy about three teens fighting back against their heavily armed neighbour. The film features a somewhat juvenile sense of humour, particularly when it involves lines spoken by Colin and his often drunk father Roger. However, when things gets real, Dead Shack features some very creative and gory zombie kills and very iconic looking villain, played by Lauren Holly (Dumb and Dumber), sporting padded armour and a welding mask.
I do have to admit that I found the first half of Dead Shack to be quite excruciating for me to watch. I found that the film’s very juvenile sense of humour resulted in more face palms, than laughs for me. However, I do the believe the film improved in the second half, when the focus shifted more to fighting back against the neighbour and her zombies. While not enough to fully save the film in my eyes, it did cause my overall opinion of Dead Shack to raise slightly.
WATCHABLE 