Otto; or, Up with Dead People

Desperate to cast someone with real talent, a female director hires a young man who believes that he is actually a zombie to play a zombie in this offbeat blend of comedy and horror from cult director Bruce LaBruce. Constantly cutting back and forth between 'reality' and the film-within, 'Otto' is not the easiest film to get into, but it features a large amount of smart and witty dialogue, both as the title character contemplates the advantages of being dead and as the director rambles on about the importance that she perceives her film to have as "a political film" tied to LGBT issues with a "gay plague" that turns all of the zombies homosexual upon returning from the dead (!). This is a creative movie beyond just the film within though with silent movie footage used well and even a fitting animated sequence amid the madness. The film's best asset though is its ambiguity as to whether or not Otto is actually a zombie. When all is revealed, it is a pretty sad film too about how certain experiences can make one feel dead on the inside. It is an up and down ride, with certain sequences (the director screening all of her previous films; some of the love scenes) that drag on for far too long, but the film circles around a character to whom it is surprisingly easy to grow emotionally invested with considering that he wears a singular zombie expression throughout.