''Undead or Alive: A Zombedy'' is a 2007

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

comedy horror Comedy horror (also called horror comedy) is a literary, television and film genre that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction. Comedy horror has been described as having three types: "black comedy, parody and spoof." Comedy horror can a ...

film directed by Glasgow Phillips, written by Phillips and Scott Pourroy, and starring

Navi Rawat Navlata Rawat (born June 5, 1977) is a former American television and film actress, known for her roles as Theresa Diaz on the drama series ''The O.C.'' and math prodigy Amita Ramanujan on the drama series ''Numb3rs''. Early life Rawat was born ...

Chris Kattan Christopher Lee Kattan ( ; born October 19, 1970) is an American actor and comedian. After performing with numerous comedy troupes, including The Groundlings in Los Angeles, he broke through as a regular cast member on the sketch comedy show ''Sat ...

and

James Denton James Denton (born January 20, 1963) is an American film and television actor. He is known for playing Mike Delfino on ABC's comedy drama series ''Desperate Housewives'' (2004–2012) and Dr. Sam Radford on Hallmark Channel's fantasy seri ...

. The film was later acquired by Image Entertainment, a deal that included both theatrical and home video rights.

Plot

Before his capture,

Geronimo Gerónimo (, ; June 16, 1829 – February 17, 1909) was a military leader and medicine man from the Bedonkohe band of the Ndendahe Apache people. From 1850 to 1886, Geronimo joined with members of three other Central Apache bands the Tchihen ...

had cursed white men, causing people to become

zombie A zombie (Haitian French: ; ; Kikongo: ''zumbi'') is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. In modern popular culture, zombies appear in horror genre works. The term comes from Haitian folkl ...

s. Later, at a house in a small town, a man named Ben Goodman (

Brian Posehn Brian Posehn (; born July 6, 1966) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, voice actor, musician, and writer. After numerous appearances as a television guest star, Posehn acquired his first major recurring role in HBO's '' Mr. Show with Bob a ...

) acts suspiciously. Ben proceeds to attack and eat his wife and daughter's brains. Luke (

), a cowboy living in the town, plans to marry a saloon girl. On arriving at the saloon to propose to her, he encounters Elmer Winslow (

), who has just arrived in town, and discovers that his "princess" is a prostitute. He picks a fight with Elmer until Sheriff Claypool (

Matt Besser Matthew Gregory Besser (born September 22, 1967) is an American actor, comedian, director, producer, writer, and one of the four founding members of the Upright Citizens Brigade sketch comedy troupe, who had their own show on Comedy Central from 1 ...

), who owns the saloon, jails them and steals $500 which Elmer is carrying. In the adjacent cell is Ben, awaiting his hanging the next morning. Elmer and Luke escape and lock Deputy Cletus ( Chris Coppola) in the cell, where he is bitten by Ben. Luke and Elmer find the sheriff and the prostitute having sex. They steal all the sheriff's money and make a getaway. When the sheriff releases Cletus from the cell he is bitten by him. The next morning hang Ben and assemble a posse to pursue the two fugitives. Luke and Elmer are ambushed in their sleep by Sue (

), Geronimo's niece who was kidnapped and taken to New York to be educated and has now returned to take her revenge on the soldiers who killed her uncle. After a difficult start they become friends, despite Elmer revealing that he is an army deserter. Sheriff Claypool and Cletus, now zombies, attack the other members of the posse, who also become zombies. They are ambushed by Elmer, Luke and Sue, who realise they cannot be killed and flee. Meanwhile, the townspeople cut Ben down from the gallows, not realising that hanging cannot "kill" him. He attacks the townspeople. The town's minister (

Leslie Jordan Leslie Allen Jordan (April 29, 1955 – October 24, 2022) was an American actor, comedian, writer, and singer. His television roles include Beverley Leslie on ''Will & Grace'' (2001–2006 and 2017–2020), several characters in the ''American ...

) manages to escape by locking himself in an upstairs room at the saloon, now besieged by a horde of zombies. The following morning, he climbs out of the window to get water, but is pursued by zombies and bitten by the prostitute. Elmer, Luke and Sue are captured by soldiers, former colleagues of Elmer's (his $500 is revealed to have been won from them while gambling), who take them to their fort on the edge of the

Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a mile (). The canyon and adjacent rim are contained within Grand Canyon Nati ...

. There they discover that the posse has arrived first and turned all the garrison into zombies, who attack the party and also turn all the other soldiers into zombies. They discover they can kill the zombies by

decapitation Decapitation is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and all vertebrate animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood by way of severing through the jugular vein and common c ...

. During the night, while hiding in the fort, Sue reveals that the only way to be cured of the zombie curse is to eat the living flesh of the medicine man who created the curse. They shoot several cookware objects out of a homemade

blunderbuss The blunderbuss is a 17th- to mid-19th-century firearm with a short, large caliber Gun barrel, barrel. It is commonly flared at the muzzle (firearms), muzzle to help aid in the loading of Lead shot, shot and other projectiles of relevant quantity ...

at the sheriff and the zombies to no avail. Elmer tries to punch First Sergeant Kermit in the mouth, but gets bitten by him. After destroying most of the zombies by blowing up the magazine, he becomes a zombie and throws Cletus off the cliff, before biting Luke. Sue kills Sheriff Claypool, but is then attacked by Elmer and Luke. The next scene shows Elmer and Luke looking normal again, after having eaten Sue's flesh. The "eating the living flesh" cure apparently also works for relatives of the person who created the curse. Sue apparently tasted like gingerbread. The duo ride off into the sunset as Cletus stands up and chases them. An epilogue shows Ben digging up his family, now zombies themselves, from the cemetery and the three of them (with their dog) skipping into town.

Cast

as Luke *

as Elmer * Lew Alexander as Geronimo * Todd Anderson as Kermit * Richard Barela as Drunk Zombie *

as Sheriff Claypool * Brett Brock as Townsman 1 * Richard Bucher as Townsman *

Jeff Chase Jeff Chase (born Jeffrey L. Sniffen; January 17, 1968) is an American film and television actor who played for the Albany Firebirds of the Arena Football League. Chase was born in Paterson, New Jersey. Raised in Totowa, New Jersey and West Pate ...

as Zombie * Chris Coppola as Cletus * Gino Crognale as General Store Owner * Jeffrey J. Dashnaw as Townsman * Scott Flick as Zombie Soldier * Michelle Greathouse as Schoolmarm * Patricia Greer as Saloon Girl *

as Padre * Geoffrey C. Martin as Trap door zombie * Keola Melhorn as Zombie * Tracy Melhorn as Zombie * Michael Patrick Metzdorff as Gunfighter Zombie / Union Soldier Zombie * Cristin Michele as Kate * Christopher Allen Nelson as The Captain * T. Jay O'Brien as Farlow *

as Ben *

as Sue * Chloe Russell as Ruby * Elizabeth Slagsvol as Saloon Girl * Russell Solberg as Townsman * Mia Stallard as Anna * Ben Zeller as Ebeneezer * James Blackburn as Zombie soldier * Brent Lambert as Zombie

Production

The film was shot in

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , literal translation, lit. "Holy Faith") is the capital city, capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Santa Fe County. With over 89,000 residents, Santa Fe is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, fourt ...

for Odd Lot Entertainment. Gary Jones created the make-up and masks for the film.

Release

The film premiered on March 15, 2007, as part of the

South by Southwest South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

Festival and was released on December 11, 2007, over Image Entertainment on DVD.

Soundtrack

The score was composed by Bulgarian music producer Ivan Koutikov.

Track list

Hal Ozsan Halil Özşan (; born 26 October 1976) is a Turkish Cypriot-American actor, screenwriter and producer. As an actor, he came to prominence for his role as Todd Carr in ''Dawson's Creek''. He has gone on to appear in various series regular and re ...

and Poets and Pornstars – Monkey # Poets and Pornstars – Get your Kicks # David Baker – Twists and Turns # Three Bad Jacks – Crazy in the Head # Slick Pelt – Cowboy Song # Colin Blades – Best Friend # Three Bad Jacks – Hellbound Train # Terence Jay – Undead or Alive # Slick Pelt – Danger # Chris Gerolmo – I'm your Danger

References

External links

* * {{rotten-tomatoes, id=undead_or_alive 2007 films 2007 Western (genre) films 2000s Western (genre) comedy films 2000s Western (genre) horror films 2007 comedy horror films American Western (genre) comedy films American Western (genre) horror films American comedy horror films American zombie comedy films Films about Native Americans Cultural depictions of Geronimo Films set in Arizona Films shot in New Mexico 2000s English-language films 2000s American films Films about curses Films about uxoricide Films about filicide English-language Western (genre) comedy films English-language Western (genre) horror films English-language comedy horror films