Zombie movies aren't supposed to be funny. Sure, a few of the Italian efforts from the 80's were hilariously inept (Zombi 3, I'm looking at you) and 1985's Return Of The Living Dead took some sly winks at the sub-genre, but generally movies about the dead coming back to life and eating people aren't meant to be the type of thing to elicit laughs. But that's all changed in the last few years when Shaun Of The Dead hit the scene and, thus, the "zomedy" was born.

The Mad is such an undead movie as co-writer/director Johnny Kalangis is completely going for laughs over scares. This means the movie is pretty light on the gore and such, but it still manages to be an entertaining waste of eighty-three minutes thanks mostly to the good chemistry between the cast members and a great, funny performance from Billy Zane in the lead - who previous made us horror fans chuckle in Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight.

Zane plays thirty-something doctor Jason who is on his way to vacation at a cottage with his girlfriend Monica (Shauna MacDonald), daughter Amy (Maggie Castle), and her dopey boyfriend in tow. Monica decides that they should stop on their way there in a quaint little town because there's a fair going on. Jason doesn't really want to and Amy definitely doesn't want to but they end-up doing it anyway. Seems that Jason is quite whipped, which doesn't please Amy, as she doesn't like her dad's beau one bit.

Pretty soon our group is in a nearby diner who are offering local organic burgers as the special of the day. It turns out to be a good thing when the restaurant runs out of them before they can order one as the patties have been made from meat coming from Creekside Farms, who have been putting a chemical into their feed in order to get better cuts. If you've seen any type of zombie movie, you know what happens next, as the infected burgers start turning all the patrons of the dinner into flesh craving undead.

This gives Kalangis and his cast plentiful opportunity to goof around as our characters have to team-up with the restaurant owner and his daughter (the stunning Rothaford Gray) to try and keep alive during a slew of zombie attacks. It's during these moments that the script gets to toss in a whole lot of visual humour (like Zane flipping a "Do Not Disturb" sign onto the door handle when some zombies are trying to get in), a lot of witty dialogue exchanges that made me smile (the whole rant about what should be considered a "real" zombie, for instance), and even a moment where Jason tries to distract a group of zombies by offering them free hats and clothes bearing the restaurant's name.

Everything in The Mad is so tongue-in-cheek that you can't help but go along with it. You start to forget that most of the horror moments are relatively bloodless and pretty low-scale in execution and spend more time enjoying the movie's good sense of humour and Zane's winning presence and wry line delivery. This is a movie that's one goal is to make you laugh and the amount of times you actually do is quite surprising. If you can't get amused by the fact that there's a killer hamburger patty scene and the moment when Zane and Castle's characters are having a serious father-to-daughter conversation while kicking zombie ass along the way, then perhaps you're better off sticking with a more serious effort.

In fact, the only time things start to truly go downhill is when the movie shifts into "redneck horror" territory in the finale when Jason and Amy end-up at the farm where the meat came from and are kidnapped by the nutty father and son who live there. It's like Kalangis and his co-scripters decided that spoofing zombie flicks wasn't enough and wanted to go after the Texas Chain Saw Massacre school of horror.

If you're looking for a goofy way to kill an evening, or you're a fan of lead actor Zane (I know there's a bunch of you out there, and after this I'm back on his side), then you could do a lot worse than The Mad. As "zomedies" go, this is no Fido or Shaun, but it's a fun enough diversion.

Review based on unrated version. (Chris Hartley, 11/6/07)

Directed By: Johnny Kalangis.
Written By: Kevin Hennelly, Johnny Kalangis, Christopher Warre Smets.

Starring: Billy Zane, Maggie Castle, Shauna MacDonald, Evan Charles Flock.