Where there is political unrest, wherever there are the disenfranchised, there are zombies!
I don’t care who tells you it isn’t political; it is hijo. So no surprise that the undead turn up in Cuba in Juan de los Muertos (Juan of the Dead) or that the living swarm the cinemas for a look at ’em. Who in Havana wouldn’t identify with the flick’s hero, Juan, and his sidekick, Lazaro, a Quixotic duo who are swatting zombies as the world falls to pieces around them?
Hmmmm, this reminds me of the classic closing scene in George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead when the hero, a black man, having survived the zombie onslaught, is killed by the police. If you haven’t seen this you are missing one of the great political comments of the 20th Century. If you have, watch it again.
And … if and when Juan of the Dead, writer-director Alejandro Brugues smashing new addition to the genre, makes it out of Cuba, be sure to check it out.
—Erin Orison, DEAD LOVE/the Daily Slice
Zombie image ©Bart Frescura, courtesy of Bart Frescura