Review of Otto; or, Up with Dead People (2008) by Anthony A — 08 Feb 2010

Stupid, annoying, "knowingly" pretentious, but also playful, sexy, clever and sometimes moving. Bruce La Bruce's messy film has lofty intentions that it simply doesn't come close to achieving (it especially falls short in trying to use the persecution of gay zombies as a metaphor for homophobia).

However, there are some game performances (Jey Crisfar, as Otto, is actually quite subdued but very watchable, whilst everyone else is campy or hammy), some interesting technical bits and pieces (including a mute character perpetually seen in scratchy black and white footage with inter-titles, for no apparent good reason other than to comment on how pretentious film can be), lots of laughs and some occasionally good, though overdone, doses of irony.

The bleak false ending and the almost as bleak actual ending are striking, the gore flows, the sex is hot and/or disturbing (including one guy fucking his undead boyfriend through his chest cavity). Prudes and/or homophobes - i.

E. anyone who doesn't want to see a cock in another man's mouth, even if in context - should not watch.