This is the stuff nightmares are made of, folks! “Dead Guy” totally caught me off guard because it starts off as a kinda cute comic piece about a mild mannered zombie (in not-so-frightening Halloween make-up) fighting the urge to eat his girlfriend…wife…mistress…whatever she is. He follows her around the house, begging like a dog would for scraps at the dinner table. Fed up with his bullshit, she tells him to go watch TV while she locks herself away in the bedroom. Our Dead Guy then sits down on the couch and flips on the tube to find a close-up of an upside down mouth with little eyeballs on the chin above staring back at him. The chin kinda rambles about nothing for a while until he starts pouring salt into the Dead Guy’s wound. He begins a rant about meat. To be more specific, he details his love for Steak-Ums. Before long, a fork begins shoveling Steak-Ums into the upside down mouth. MORE STEAK-UMS PLEASE, the chin creature says again and again as chewed meat spills out of its mouth and Dead Guy watches in agony. Things are still pretty funny here, but the humor definitely has become more twisted and the laughs are more nervous. After about three minutes of feeding, the chin then attempts to verbally goad Dead Guy into eating his girlfriend. Not being very successful, the television unplugs itself from the wall socket and begins chasing the zombie around the house.
If the image of an antique television wandering down narrow halls with a talking chin displayed on it, talking about flesh eating doesn’t freak you out, then you must be Helen Keller. Incredibly creepy, unpredictable and brilliantly acted, “Dead Guy” is the most disturbing short film I’ve ever seen. If I had witnessed this thing as a kid, I’d be sporting some major psychological issues right now.
