Juan of the Dead (2012)

When a man notices that a zombie epidemic has overrun his Cuban home-town, he joins forces with his friends to start an eradication service to dispose of them only to realize the inevitable and tries to get them out of the country alive.This turned out to be one of the more flat-out enjoyable zombie efforts around in the last few years with some absolutely great work to this one when it came down to it. The comedy here is the biggest plus, as this seems to be done in the right way with a group of funny people at the center of the storyline rather than just trying to shoehorn the jokes and gags into the proceedings, and there's a lot of fun with the great comedy that comes from both the verbal and physical areas, yet is still smart enough to keep the creatures as true threats and something to be dealt with in a serious matter. This allows for a lot of great gore to come through with some pretty innovative kills and copious bloodletting during the zombie massacres, even though the low-budget shines through and it resorts to clever and ingenious but still cop-out methods of hiding the biggest gore scenes. As well, the fact that the scatter-shot story seems to go all over the place at times is a little problematic, but overall this was a pretty entertaining and enjoyable zombie epic.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Brief Nudity.

I was bored and looking for something new to watch. Nothing on Netflix caught my interest. I searched for video on demand and saw this title on HBO. The title immediately reminded me of Shaun of the dead. I was slightly surprised when the film began and I saw the subtitles. The zombie craze has made its way to Cuba? Fortunately I am bilingual and having worked with Cuban refugees I know a lot about the political climate in that country. It does turn out that the country and its conditions play a major part in what makes this film what it is. However even if you are not that familiar just sit back and be educated. You wont be disappointed. Juan is a loser who surrounds himself with others much like himself. They are all completely clueless as to the cause of the zombie uprising and instead believe what the government is telling them. That the cause of the trouble is merely US interference and that the trouble makers are thus all dissidents. Word to the wise, never believe what your government tells you. Things digress from here. The "dissidents" appear to be gaining ground. Juan and his band of merry miscreants are forced to deal with the new society. This has to be one of the best zombie movies ever. It deserves to be watched by as many as possible. I really hope Hollyweird doesn't decide to make an American version like they do for so many other movies. It's setting are intricate to the plot.

I saw this film as part of the Imagine film festival (SF/fantasy/horror) Amsterdam 2012. The title of this film may need some explanation (this is not a spoiler). It refers to the name Juan invented for his service offering "Juan of the dead. We kill your beloved ones. How can I help you?", this being the spoken announcement when answering the phone. In your mind you hear the text "(and earn money)" hidden behind this message.I suspect many things in this film to be intentionally satirical. For instance, TV news often accuses dissidents, paid by US, to covertly causing the reported troubles. On the other hand, I observe several halfway missed opportunities to expose the army (a helicopter crashes on town hall dome), and ditto ridicule the police (a policeman assigned to collect sane people for evacuation, defeats the very purpose by including one visibly affected person). Can it be that satire on civil servants is frowned upon in Cuba?More on this subject is that we see elevators fail, expired medicine, civilization generally looking outdated, and more such things that may be intentional satire (or not). And finally, we don't see anyone busy with useful work. Instead, we see a lot of alcohol and people doing absolutely nothing.In case you are not interested in an inside view in Cuba as of today, nor making fun of Cuban society as it is nowadays, you better be on the lookout for a different zombie movie. I don't think that zombies were meant to be the main course on the menu, only a side issue to have some sort of story line. Anyway, Juan can be of help when you want to get rid of an member of the family, be it because seemingly infected with zombie blood, or can better be eased out of the way for other reasons.All in all, the humor and the satire (intended or not) make this film to what it is, not the zombies nor the special effects. Far from perfect, but it makes us aware of a film industry presence in Cuba that we neglected until today. This film ranked 7th for the audience award, with an average score of 8.25/10.

The only Cuban film I had seen was Fresa y Chocolate, which I liked very much mainly because of its screenplay and its interesting look to the society from that country, trapped (or protected, according points of view) into a "cultural bubble" imposed by its governors. Today, I could watch another Cuban film, Juan de los Muertos, which employed the unexpected resource of zombie cinema in order to tell a story which is simple in its shape, but deep in its comments about modern Cuba, the idiosyncrasy of its inhabitants and their possible future.The film with which Juan de los Muertos can be compared the best is the brilliant Shaun of the Dead, not only for the zombie subject, but also because it sets its emotional axis over the evolution of a main character who starts as a "loser" and ends up being an "accidental hero". Besides, Juan de los Muertos also bases its humor on the picturesque collective personality from a town, something which brings it a unique identity which transcends the clichés that necessarily integrate the story. In other words, Juan de los Muertos doesn't have to be seen as any other zombie movie, but as cultural artifact which employs the horror format as a vehicle of its interesting message. And the fact that it expresses that message with wide doses of humor only makes it more amusing and accessible, and as a consequence, it will be able to equally satisfy the "gorehounds" as well as the followers of art-house cinema searching for a very competent alternative to Hollywood cinema.As we can expect, some technical elements from Juan de los Muertos reflect its independent nature; the cinematography is good, but some digital effects have that artificial and "des-integrated" appearance we frequently find in low-budget cinema. On the positive side, the blood and prosthetic practical effects are very good, even though not as many as I would have preferred to see in a film with AS MANY zombies. And that's one of the things which surprised me the most...the scale of Juan de los Muertos and its audacious use of big multitudes (sure, some of them are digital) to show the urban chaos in Havana during the zombie epidemic. Speaking of which, you don't have to expect many explanations about the origins of the living dead...unless we consider the TV news which seem to aim the guilt to a certain imperialist country which insists on nosing foreign affairs as "explanation".Anyway, the most important things in Juan de los Muertos are the social commentary, the irreverent political critic and the excellent performances from the whole cast, highlighting Alejo Díaz de Villegas, Jorge Molina and Jazz Vilá. On the negative aspect, Juan de los Muertos looses some energy in the middle, and a few jokes feel excessively obvious and repetitive. Nevertheless, I recommend it as a very entertaining experience with many positive elements.