Ghouls on Film

Well, my previous post was an unforeseen “Debbie Downer.”

I promise I’m not as depressing as I must seem! And as an apology – oh, loyal readers – I’ve made you a mix tape. But how about a little backstory on this mix first, huh? Just so you know what you’re in for: This is going to be upbeat, I swear.

As my entry on “Death Becomes Her” declared, I am now full-on obsessed with the undead. If there is a way of not-dying that is explored in any medium (though, I like film and television best), I’m going to make sure I’m part of that exploration.

Almost immediately following my DBH marathon-ing, I happened upon the film “My Boyfriend’s Back.” The film follows a boy named Johnny Dingle who is murdered during an attempted robbery at the shop where his main crush, Missy McCloud, works. As he’s dying, Missy promises him a date if he stays alive.  Too bad it doesn’t seem that he’ll be able to cash in on that promise.

But then things get weird. He returns to school after his funeral, though, as if he hadn’t died at all -  I think? Honestly, I can’t remember all the plot points now (I don’t think I’ve seen it since childhood, though I’d like to!), but IMDB tells me Matthew Fox, Matthew McConaughey, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman were in it?

This is insane to me.

But what’s more insane is that the runners of the movie completely squandered a great opportunity to showcase solid gold oldies in their soundtrack. I mean, the title itself is an Angels song! (Though, I give them the benefit of the doubt since, according to Wikipedia, the film was originally titled “Johnny Zombie”). Still, though, it’s through my young brain’s association with this film and its title that I tend to find myself disappointed that no zombie movie ever has an oldies soundtrack. I just continue to believe that zombies = doo-wop songs.

Now, I am a super-fan of oldies music. My iTunes library is littered with girl groups from the ’60s, rockabilly boys from the ’50s, and anything recent that can pass as such. And (as you readers who aren’t strangers to me know) I am an aspiring screenwriter.

One idea I’ve been tossing around is a zombie (possibly musical?!) flick, for the sole purpose of making my very own movie-scoring dreams come true. To protect my idea and pride, I won’t divulge too much of what I’ve outlined the plot to be, but know that it is intended to be a “Heathers” meets “Hairspray” type-of-deal with enough snark and camp to keep even the most serious-business of moviegoers entertained. So, please to enjoy the mix I’ve made specifically for you (in video form, so you can see just how cool zombies look set to old tunes), based on my own idea for a zombie film. Feel free to recommend me any great oldies tunes you think I’d be into, or tell me what you think would make a great soundtrack to a zombie film!

TRACKLISTING:
Goodies, “The Dum Dum Ditty”
The Diamonds, “The Stroll”
Peggy Lee, “Lover”
The Beach Boys, “Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)”
The Castaways, “Liar Liar”
The Puppets, “Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart”
Lesley Gore, “You Don’t Own Me”
The Turtles, “Grim Reaper of Love”
Brigitte Bardot, “Moi Je Joue”
The Shangri-Las, “The Boy”
(All images found via Google image search for “zombie”, duh.)