In The Mad, a family, consisting of a father, his girlfriend, his daughter and her boyfriend, stop at a small rural fair while on a road trip vacation to eat at a local diner. None of them had the burgers made with the prize winning locally grow beef, but those that did turned into ravenous, flesh-hungry zombies. Together with the restaurateur and his friendly waitress, the family must hole-up in the restaurant and fend off the onslaught of crazed zombies and get to the bottom of this epidemic.

The Mad is not an over-the-top gore kind of zombie movie; it’s more of a comedy, or zomedy as they say. This might be unexpected given the cover of the case, but I got this from Netflix, so the red envelope gave me no preconceived notions about what to expect. As a zombie movie I enjoyed it, but this is the first in a string of four zombie movies that I’ve watched in a row to be worth a damn at all. The acting was adequate, the editing was well done and the musical score worked on many levels.

While it wasn’t an extraordinarily funny movie, the dead pan delivery of the comedic lines by Billy Zane and the supporting cast worked excellently. What I mean is that whenever something that was supposed to be funny was said that ended up not being funny, I didn’t cringe or think “How fuckin’ stupid”. It was either funny, or unnoticeable. I didn’t get the idea that someone was embarrassing themselves waiting for the yuck-yucks that just weren’t coming.

The special effects make-up was pretty good, but way under used for a zombie movie. They were definitely going for a less is more approach in The Mad. The zombie make-up was excellent and worked very well without question.

I enjoyed watching The Mad, but I could see how more discerning viewers might want to give it a pass. It’s a well produced movie with a decent cast and script with a few funny moments. Don’t run out to rent it, but if you find yourself with the means to, watch it on the cheap.

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