Night Life (film)

Night Life is a 1989 American zombie comedy film directed by David Acomba and starring Scott Grimes, John Astin, and Cheryl Pollak. It centers around a high school nerd named Archie Melville who is harassed from beyond the grave by the zombie corpses of his former high school bullies (recently deceased) after they are brought back to life by a freak lightning storm. It is also known as Grave Misdemeanors.

Night Life
Directed byDavid Acomba
Produced byCharles Lippincott
Written byKeith F. Critchlow
Starring
Music byRoger Bourland
CinematographyRoger Tonry
Edited byMichael John Bateman
Production
company
Creative Movie Marketing
Release date
  • 1989 (1989)
Running time
89 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Plot

Archie Melville takes a job with his Uncle Verlin at the mortuary. When the local bullies die in a car crash, they are taken to the mortuary, where they become reanimated. The bullies, now zombies, become even nastier and begin to torment Archie and his friend Charly.

Archie is tormented by jocks John Devlin, Rog Davis, and another friend. John is dating a popular girl named Roberta Woods, played by Darcy DeMoss. The torment doesn't end there, as Archie works for his uncle Verlin, who more or less treats Archie badly, often forcing him to do disgusting work while Verlin does not. Perhaps Archie's only friend is Charly Cheryl Pollak, a pretty tomboy who works at a local gas station fixing cars, but has announced her intentions to leave town. After Archie finally plays a prank on his tormentors, they plot revenge, though Roberta begs them not to, as she has grown tired of them picking on Archie for no reason. Before any play of revenge can take play, Archie's bullies (and Roberta along with Joanie, another girlfriend of Archie's tormentors) perish is a car crash. Verlin, who'd rather go out on a date than do his work, assigns Archie the task of getting the bodies or his tormentors ready for autopsy. As Archie is going about these task, a bolt of lightning re-animates the recently deceased teens. Though his now dead bullies seem intent on killing Archie, zombie Roberta seems to have more romantic intentions, as she tries to kiss Archie any time she is near them.

Uncle Verlin returns to find the mortuary a mess and begins to yell at Archie, who by now has the zombies trapped. Verlin dismisses Archie's warnings and goes into the mortuary, where he is captured by the zombies. Instead of eating his brains, they strap Verlin onto a table and fill his body full of embalming fluid until it finally explodes, scattering his internal organs everywhere. Eventually, Archie escapes, but the zombies are hot on his trail, stopping to beat up and kill two cops that were on patrol. Finally, Archie is able to reach Charly and convince her of what's going on. After the zombies take out a few more victims (including Charly's would be boyfriend, a self-absorbed race car driver) Charly and Archie team together to rid the world of the Zombies, even Roberta, who still showing romantic interest in Archie, despite the fact she's a zombie. Charly kills Roberta, and realizes that she has always bene in love with Archie. With the four zombies now dead, Charly and Archie look over the scene and ponder their life together.

Cast

Reception

Writing in The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, academic Peter Dendle called the film "a routine and laborious living-dead exercise".[1] Glenn Kay, who wrote Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide, called it a "rather minor teen effort".[2]

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References
  1. Dendle, Peter (2001). The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia. McFarland & Company. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-7864-9288-6.
  2. Kay, Glenn (2008). Zombie Movies: The Ultimate Guide. Chicago Review Press. p. 165. ISBN 978-1-55652-770-8.
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