Night of the Living Dorks (2005)

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Starring Tino Mewes, Thomas Schmieder, Manuel Cortéz, Collien Fernandes

Directed by Matthias Dinter


I knew Night of the Living Dorks was going to be better than I had anticipated about thirty seconds in, right around the time the three hundred pound Haitian lady fried the zombie with her flamethrower, shouting “Fuck off Motherfucker!” Night of the Living Dorks will satisfy your latent craving for 80’s teen comedy, and provide zombie gut munching to boot. It’s more American Pie than Breakfast Club, and the zombies are decidedly Night of the Creeps rather than Day of the Dead, but despite lacking in Ringwald-age/Bub-age, this flick kicks ass.

The Dorks in the film correspond to three loser friends, Philip, Konrad and Wurst. Philip is the sexually frustrated hero, Konrad the uber-nerd, and Wurst the bong-hitting jackass. The writers of Dorks couldn’t have created more clichéd characters if they had tried, but given that the film is Porky’s meets Zombie, the stereotypes fit. Apparently they’ve got geeky, virgin stoners in Germany too.

The ashes of the zombie flambéed in the opening scene end up on ebay, where they are purchased by the local Goths of Friedrich Nietzsche High School. The ashes are supposed to be able to raise the dead, which is ideal, since the Goths want to travel to Seattle to re-animate Kurt Kobain. Fortunately for Courtney Love, the ashes accidentally get spilled on Philip, Konrad and Wurst, robbing Kurt of his revenge against that murdering bitch…

The three friends end up dead, when their bong malfunctions spewing smoke into their Scooby van, causing them to crash. Due to the ashes they accidentally ingested beforehand, the guys end up becoming zombies rather than just another drunk driving statistic. As their undead status begins to dawn on the dorks, we’re treated to a slew of hilarious misadventures. Genitalia rot and fall off, only to be stapled back on. Red leather jackets are donned, and Thriller dancing ensues. Rugby jocks are beat down, zombie style. The list goes on.

Night of the Living Dorks should have been a derivative Shaun of the Dead ripoff, but it succeeds despite not really doing anything new. It takes the best of teen comedy, fuses it with an interesting take on the zombie mythos, and throws in some solid humor and gore for good measure. Grab a sixpack of Heineken, spark up the bong, and check this sucker out for some gut munching belly laughs.

4 out of 5

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