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Screamfest 2019 – Undead “Eat Brains Love” Knows How To Bring Characters To Life (Movie Review)

In today’s horror laden movie climate zombies have become a dime a dozen.  Long gone are the days of Romero’s stark new vision of flesh eating ghouls as the walking dead have literally gone mainstream.  Thus it takes some utterly original tinkering to make any such film a standout, but fortunately the latest cinematic outing involving the undead from helmer Rodman Flender titled Eat Brains Love has just enough humor, quirk and highly memorable characters to make it rise above the buried alive fray and live again.

 

 

Jake Stephens is a teenager with small thoughts but a big imagination.  He’s a typical slacker with little ambition beyond the next bong hit, except when it comes to his unwavering adoration and nonstop fantasies for local cheerleader captain and resident hottie Amanda Blake.  Though the two have exchanged only a few words over the years, they soon realize they have more in common than they thought when the two find they have – through sexual intercourse – contacted the virus that turns them into zombies with a big hunger for flesh.  Forced together by necessity to survive, the two hit the road as they are not only being followed by local law but also a secret government agency hell-bent on destroying and also enslaving zombie carriers by using hunters with psychic abilities. One such clairvoyant, a teen named Cass who has been assigned to the cannibal couple, senses the inner charm of Jake and begins to have a curious attraction.  But with Jake already infatuated with Amanda is there room for another gal in his romantic brains eating life – let the undead love triangle begin.

A part of what makes Eat Brains Love so enjoyable is the very funny script by writers Mike Herro and David Strauss adapting the book by Jeff Hart.  Full of everything from high school hijinks to the traditional teen play within a rom-com to of course blood and gore galore, Herro and Strauss focus on story first and zombies second.  But what truly makes their work on paper come to life is frankly the cast themselves – especially the female characters.  Not that leading man Jake Cannavale doesn’t have the comedic chops to pull off his dim witted dude with ease (he’s like Vinnie Barbarino for the medically enlightened crowd!), but it’s the female force of nature characters that surround him that steal the show. Angelique Rivera as the saucy Amanda, Kristen Daniel as the gun-toting Grace, Kym Jackson as the sweet summer and especially the stunning Sarah Yarkin as the equally tough and touching Cass (described in the film as a “hot Ripley” – and she really is!) all provide uniquely memorable work that lingers long after all movie meat has been stripped from the bone.

It’s not a surprise that Flender staged this one as the director has a real knack for mixing teen issues with horror, comedy and heart and proves once and for all that his previous outing Idle Hands in the same realm was no fluke.  And it’s a feat in more ways than one – for a flick about the undead Eat Brains Love really knows how to bring its characters to life.