Movie Details
| Title: | Night of the Living Dorks | |
| Director: | Matthias Dinter | |
| Year: | 2004 | |
| Genre: | Zombie | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 10.07.05 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 10.07.05 | Alamo South Lamar | This Screening is part of event: FantasticFest 2005 So After Wild Blue Yonder, I had a real need for something I could laugh at and easily understand without worrying about my intelligence or anything like that. Night of the Living Dorks sounded like the perfect answer. Beforehand, Tim League got up and explained how he assigned which films each person should intro for the fest, and how he really had no idea why he penciled his name in for this movie because he knows absolutely nothing about it, other than it won the Audience award as this year's Fantasia Festival. He also mentioned that this movie really scares him because the title is so horrible but he remembers last year being afraid of another movie with a horrible title like Shaun of the Dead, which he turned out to really like so he offered no guarantees but hoped for the best. Lucky for us all though, we are getting to see Forklift Driver Klaus first. For anyone that hasn't seen Forklift Driver Klaus (oder Stapelfahrer Klaus in Deutch) I strongly recommend hitting up google. It's available somewhere online and, even if you can't find a version with English subtitles watch it anyway. I first saw it without subtitles and I almost think it plays better that way. It's set up as an industrial safety film about Klaus' first day as a forklift operator. Needless to say, Klaus has a very bad day. Curiously however, it seemed that Tim's print with English subtitles was also in black and white. The German version I found on the Internet was in color. Either way, it's a really good time and well worth the 9 minutes it takes to watch it. Then came Night of the Living Dorks, which is a really horrible title. It should be noted that it's "Losers" in the German title instead of "Dorks," which at least cuts out the possibility of a penis reference. A lot of people afterward compared this movie to Idle Hands (but better) and Shaun of the Dead (but worse). Honestly, aside from it treating the zombie genre as a source of comedy, I don't see a lot of similarities. Idle Hands was all frantic pantomime mixed with postmodern sidekicks and Shaun of the Dead, no matter how much fun it had with the genre, still ended up a bit serious at the end of the day. This movie is more like a straight-up teen comedy where the stars just happen to be undead. There's the hot neighbor who's not really supposed to be hot because she's goth who burns a torch for the oblivious main character who wants the popular girl instead of the she's-actually-hotter-than-the-popular-girl neighbor who's throwing herself at his feet, there's the cool-guy-but-still-nerdy-just-not-as-nerdy-as-the-main-guy friend who's main job is to smoke, drink, and chase after hot teachers, there's the popular rich kid antagonist, and the nerdiest-of-the-bunch-brainiac-friend to round it all off. All the staples are there, it's just injected with really funny zombie humor. Think Teen Wolf with rotting flesh and detaching genitalia. The gags are quite funny. I got a sense that a lot of them were jokes that perhaps their upper brow tried to keep out of the movie but they were just too good to give up. There's a Thriller reference in there which kills, lots of "Oops, I ate the gym teacher" type of stuff, and a great hot tub joke which would definitely be a perk of not having to breathe. Perhaps ultimately it does fall between Idle Hands and Shaun of the Dead quality-wise, but I still think the movie has more in common with She's All That or 10 Things I Hate About You than anything Romero-influenced. Random Notes: -losing your penis = funny, showing you staple said lost penis back on = funnier -apparently being a zombie also puts you in with the ladies |
