Review: Burying the Ex

Official Tagline: A guy's regrets over moving in with his girlfriend are compounded when she dies and comes back as a zombie.

Written by: Alan Trezza

Directed by: Joe Dante

Starring: Anton Yelchin, Ashley Greene, Alexandra Daddario

Burying the Ex is a dark comedy / horror movie that is actually a fun way to spend ninety minutes or so. The story follows our hapless hero Max [Anton Yelchin], who works at a Halloween shop with dreams of opening his own shop. Max is a nice guy, too nice. His never seen boss runs over him over the telephone, his stoner, horn dog bother, Travis [Oliver Cooper] takes advantage of his good nature and worst of all, his too hot for him, control freak girlfriend, Evelyn has their future all mapped out for them.

When the story opens we can see early on that Max is restless and unhappy with his relationship with Evelyn and after stumbling into the new horror themed doughnut shop and finding a kindred spirit in owner Olivia [Alexandra Daddario], Max realizes he must end his dysfunctional relationship with Evelyn. Amazing how meeting someone as super hot as Alexandra Daddario can make a guy question his relationship.

 So Max decides to break up with Evelyn, but Max doesn’t like confrontations and dishonesty is the best policy when ending or beginning a relationship according to screenwriter Alan Trezza. To be fair to mister Trezza, almost all comedy, especially romantic comedy, is based on lies or deception of one sort or another and this story follows that tried and true formula.

Max decides to have Evelyn meet him at a park to dump her. Thinking she won’t make a scene in public. On her way there, Evelyn is violently killed right in front of Max. Sure Max feels a little guilty, but now he can pursue Olivia without complications [besides the few lies he has told her], or so he thinks until Evelyn digs herself out of her grave. Things get weird from there.

Director Joe Dante has a sure hand at the controls and the story unfolds at a good pace. The actors all deliver good performances and it was fun seeing the lovely Ashley Greene decomposing as the story went on. The biggest threat to the Suspension of Disbelief for me wasn’t the zombie aspect of the story; it was how someone like Max could attract women who look like Ashley Greene and Alexandra Daddario.

Burying the Ex is a nice way to spend an evening with your honey or as a primer on how not to break up with someone.

Screen Writer Ink

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