Freddy's 31 Days of Horror Day 29: Joe Dante's Burying the Ex
Joe Dante is hands down one of my favorite genre directors of all time. Coming from the schlock camp of Corman with his first feature the original, Piranha. He continued on with many of his Corman collaborators making quirky strange movies like, Innerspace, Small Soldiers, Rock and Roll High School, The Howling, Explorers and of course his most beloved film, Gremlins aka the best Christmas movie ever. I could go on about all of his movies, but what connects them are the odd and strange storylines he chooses to bring to the big screen which definitely in this day and age makes it difficult to get his movies made. Thankfully there are enough indie companies out there that love Dante enough to keep funding his projects as Dante constantly is making movies, using his old cohorts and bringing new faves into the fold. His latest flick stars Anton Yelchin of Star Trek fame, Ashley Green from CBGB, Oliver Cooper from Project X and Alexandra Daddario who recently became the cousin of Leatherface in the new Texas Chainsaw flick! With their powers combined, they bring us Burying the Ex!
Yelchin plays Max who is dating Green who plays Evelyn. Cooper is Max's brother Travis who constantly sleeps over at his brother's house when having sex with multiple ladies so they never know where he actually lives, much to Evelyn's green peace, vegan, controlling dismay. Max works at a horror themed store, but aspires to own his own horror themed store where he doesn't answer to anyone and share his love of horror with others on his own terms. Evelyn is constantly giving him grief for his affinity for horror and is constantly trying to get him to be more healthy and environmentally friendly. Basically his dreams are stupid and he lives life her way or he's just living it wrong. She convinces him to let her move in and she completely changes his entire house and ruins all his mint condition horror movie posters. Travis convinces Max, she has got to go. Max decides to break up with her and on her way to meet him, she gets hit by a bus and dies! Max constantly blames himself for it and cannot let go of it at all. Unfortunately Evelyn can't let go either and comes back to life to love him, never sleep, never eat, just love Max and be with him forever!
Evelyn truly does love Max, he is what got her through her mother's death and she even says her spirit died with her mother but Max brought her back to life. She is ultimately afraid of losing Max and will do anything to keep him. She's not entirely a bad person, she's just not the right person for Max who slowly gives up all his ways of life for her. His perfect person is Daddario's Olivia. A cute horror loving punk rocker who runs a horror and punk rock themed ice cream parlor. Their first encounter is amazingly adorable as they both give each other a history in fruit brute cereal, but of course Evelyn gets pissed and calls her a slut. Once Evelyn passes, Max finally gets to go out with the woman of his dreams, Olivia. Unfortunately right after the first date, Zombie Evelyn comes back to say she and Max will be together forever. The rest of the film is Max convincing Evelyn to stay inside and giving her excuses as to why they can't have sex and why he's working so late when he's actually going on dates with Olivia. Can you blame the guy for lying at that point though? You're somewhat already unstable ex, comes back as a hyped up supernaturally powered zombie who watches you constantly. This poor guy is screwed! Thankfully with the help of his horned up brother Travis and the love of Olivia, Max can finally bury his ex.
These four characters are fun as hell to watch interact with each other, which is one of Dante's specialties. You have to love how easily he can combine comedy and horror and this flick is especially a love letter to horror fans as they constantly reference the classics and show off a lot of Los Angeles most beloved horror spots like the New Beverly and a lot of the horror themed stores there. They even have a death scene while one of the characters is watching the Gore Gore Girls! It's true horror geek love as Olivia and Max walk the cemetery of Hollywood among the tombstones of celebrities like Johnny Ramone, share their first intimate moments with Night of the living Dead in the background and talk horror until Dawn. True love Beyond belief my friends. This is the perfect movie to cuddle up with someone special too who also has an affinity for gore, guts and gooey!
Two more days til' HalloweenHalloween!
Two more days til' Halloween! Silver Shamrock!
Artwork by Jeff Muncy
