The Night of the Living Dorks

Ostensibly a horror/comedy, The Night of the Living Dorks is unable to elicit either scares or laughs from the viewer – a problem that’s exacerbated by writer/director Mathias Dinter’s reliance on woefully conventional elements. The film’s relatively intriguing premise – three horny teenagers are unwittingly transformed into zombies – is consequently (and consistently) undercut by an emphasis on puerile, American Pie-style hijinks, with the end result an entirely needless piece of work. Dinter has clearly been inspired by virtually every high school comedy ever made, as the film contains almost all of the touchstones that viewers have come to expect out of the genre (eg the nerdy hero has a crush on the hottest girl on campus, wholly unaware that his tomboyish best friend has been lusting after him since childhood). The Night of the Living Dorks is ultimately not even remotely as fun as one imagines it’s meant to be, and there’s just no overlooking the distinctly inept vibe that seems to have been hard-wired into the proceedings.

** out of ****