A group of 1950s high school students, angry over being sold bad marijuana, inadvertently kill the local dealer, Mussolini, and dump his body in the radioactive lake. The water raises him as a zombie and he looks for revenge.
The ’50s monster movie satire is one of the easiest movies to make, and almost impossible to make well. “Nice” is about the best you can hope for and that’s more than I Was a Teenage Zombie can manage. Partly that’s because it’s never clear if this is a satire, or just a ’50s monster film made in the ’80s. As a satire, it needs to be funnier, or perhaps say something. As a straight film, it needs to be more frightening and engaging. Instead, it sets up wild characters in preposterous situations, and then wants you to care about feelings and relationships at the end. I didn’t care and I didn’t laugh. There were a lot of “almosts.” I’d nod and smile as the six (soon to be five, then four) teens tried to get pot from the insane dealer, when they did their fly resurrection with the radioactive water, and when they stored a zombie in the basement. If it wasn’t full of blood and the occasional blue-tinted zombie, I might describe the film as cute. For a zombie flick, or a satire, “cute” isn’t much of a recommendation.
I Was a Teenage Zombie might have been mild entertainment for someone who wasn’t demanding, if the production values were better. This is an unpleasant film to watch. Sure, a low budget indie isn’t expected to look crisp, but the grain here shows a lack of knowledge of cinematography, lighting, and purchasing film stock (16mm has never looked more like 8mm). Far worse is the sound. The muffled dialog is no better than something you could record at home using the built in mic on your camcorder or computer.
If you want a bit of comedy with your zombies, give Return of the Living Dead or Tracers a shot, and let this one rot.