Movies in recent times have generally revolved around particular and popular trends, like natural disasters, unique adventures or the typical teen horror movie. Zombies are quite the trend as well, so the sizeable number of movies concerning the undead should come to no surprise. While these movies have generally a horror setting and feature masses of zombies out to kill anything and everything, some movies have recently tried to change the formula and pit only few zombies, if not one or two.
(contains minor spoilers)
Burying the EX, a new movie directed by Gremlins director Joe Dante, is one of these few exceptions, and it proves to be quite a refresher indeed. The movie stars Max and Evelyn, a happy couple who is not really that happy. When Evelyn starts to be a little too intrusive in Max’s life, like changing his eating habits or even painting their house as she wants, he starts to want out but does not have the courage to end the relationship for fear of hurting her. One day though, due to what one could define a fortunate accident for Max, Evelyn ends up dead and buried, and Max falls in love with another girl, Olivia, who seems to be perfectly suited for him and shares a lot of his interests, unlike Evelyn. Max and Olivia start to hang out quite a lot, and begin to fall in love with each other. While in other movies this would trigger the end credits and a happy ending, this was not to be the case. This is because Evelyn rises from her grave, and just like nothing had ever happened, goes back to live with Max. Life with zombie Evelyn is just as hard as before, and even worse one could say. Max experiences first-hand how minor episodes are quite different when your girlfriend has risen from the dead. The movie also takes a turn for the worse for Max when Evelyn, on the premise of being together forever, tries to kill Max. Her rising from the dead was due to some malefic devil genie spell, who nailed the moment where the couple swore to be together forever, no matter what happens. She thus believes that the same would happen if she were to kill her boyfriend, initially trying to convince him to take his own life but later taking matters into her own hands.
The movie is defined as a horror comedy, and this definition suits the film quite well. It has its comic moments as well as a couple of horror moments as well, and while not incredibly scary, they are quite impactful. Defining the beginning of the movie boring is not adequate since it is quite a powerful word, but there is nothing particularly noteworthy before Evelyn’s death. Upon her death though, the movie’s comedic part definitely improves, and sets the scene for quite some hilarious moments. Max’s best friend Travis is a major source of comedy, and some of his lines are priceless. Evelyn and Travis are also quite aggressive towards each other, so expect the comedy to ensue when these two are in the same room together. The characters of the movie are played out quite well, even though no depth is given to any character except maybe of Max’s, but being the lead it is expected.
The movie also feels as if it were an old clip brought to the present, and I say this in a good way and not bad. The whole film is surrounded by an atmosphere of the old days and while some elements of technology are definitely present, the main places of the movie resemble something more of the early 2000s. In my opinion this environment helps the movie quite a lot, giving it a unique vibe with the city playing its own, minor part in the background.
All in all, Burying the EX features the typical good and bad forces battling against each other for superiority over one another. While as mentioned before the characters are not necessarily developed into much depth, they all have a distinguishing factor, which makes the movie enjoyable. I would definitely recommend it to anyone willing to watch a good comedy movie and even scary movie fans, although it does not have a lot of scenes to please the bloodthirsty horror fans.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
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