Being a zombie movie afficionado, I had pretty high hopes before popping "Zombie Honeymoon" into my DVD player. I didn't expect another "Dawn of the Dead," but with a title like that, it was reasonable to assume it would either be great trash, or have a healthy sense of humor on par with the likes of "Shawn of the Dead" or "Dead and Breakfast." Unfortunately, "Zombie Honeymoon" doesn't fall under either category. It's very well made on a low budget and features some good performances, but makes the fatal mistake of taking its admittedly amusing premise too seriously.

Danny & Denise are two impossibly-in-love newlyweds spending a month-long honeymoon at a beautiful beach house. While sunbathing, Danny is attacked by a hellish looking ghoul that emerges from the sea and spews some kind of black gunk into his mouth. Even though he dies in the hospital, he miraculously awakens later on, seemingly none the worse for wear. Denise is initially elated, but that elation doesn't last long when she later discovers him in their bathroom dining on the flesh of a local vagrant. She's horrified, but loves Danny too much to run away, especially after Danny promises her he'll try to curb his cannibalistic cravings. This proves easier said than done when he later kills and eats a rude video store patron and a travel agent. Denise does her best to help Danny cover his tracks when the police come sniffing around. Meanwhile, Danny's appearance slowly grows worse, and his appetite more insatiable, which becomes more than he can stand when two of their friends come to visit. The performances by the two leads (Graham Sibley & Tracy Coogan) are quite good, and the script itself is fairly well-written, fleshing out these characters well enough that we truly care about their dilemma. The main problem I had with "Zombie Honeymoon" is, for a movie touted as a horror comedy, it isn't often all that funny. Not because the jokes fall flat. Quite the opposite; there are a few terrific one-liners here and there ("I told you I was hungry," quips Danny as he storms past an angry and distraught Denise, munching on a severed arm), and the irony of a die-hard vegetarian becoming a flesh-eating zombie is admittedly a hoot. The problem is the movie mostly tries to maintain the affection the audience has gained for the two leads by assuming the tone of a doomed love story. I dunno...maybe director/writer Dave Gebroe assumed the premise alone is funny enough. But instead of becoming an outrageous, over-the-top piece of "splatstick", the film spirals to a depressing - albeit logical - conclusion. Which brings me to another criticism of the film...once the premise is established, the movie doesn't really go anywhere...no real attempts at humor (although several situations offer the opportunity), no plot turns, no further characterization. We simply wait for the next kill, which will also likely disappoint die-hard zombiphiles, since the film never reaches the giddy, gory heights of other recent zombie comedies. Even some of the worst Italian hack-jobs of the 80s mange to entertain by virtue of their sheer audacity.

The movie is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen, and while it isn't the greatest image on Earth (either due to the transfer or the film's low budget), I had no problems with the overall picture quality. The same can be said for the audio quality. The soundtrack is rendered in 5.1 Dolby Digital, and is adequate enough that any glitches in the audio transfer aren't all that distracting.

The disc I reviewed is a promotional screener, and none of the extras that are supposed to be on the actual release weren't included. But according to the cover, the extras include commentaries by Coogan & Sibley, a second one by director Dave Gebroe, a behind-the-scene featurette, a gag reel, audition tapes, deleted scenes and a filmography.

"Zombie Honeymoon" unfortunately falls into that dreaded nether-region of being too well made to qualify as great gutter trash, and not amusing enough to justify its horror-comedy label. What we're left with is a movie than isn't likely to please fans of zombie flicks OR horror comedies. It's a movie that tries to be more than it should be, which is gory, low-brow entertainment. I would definitely advise would-be horror fans to rent this one first. Similar Films: "Return of the Living Dead"; "Dead Alive"