In the last five years or so independent Canadian actor-director Brett Kelly has been making a minor name for himself with such efforts as The Feral Man, The Bonesetter (and it's sequel), and his latest: the flesh eating horror-comedy My Dead Girlfriend.

Having never seen any of his efforts, I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this as a good majority of indie flicks suffer from budgetary restraints, sloppy production, and amateurish acting. While I can't deny the fact that a few of the actors here fail to make much of an impression (even Kelly who gives himself the lead role is merely a so-so actor, even if he has an okay grasp on the visuals), My Dead Girlfriend manages to deliver enough okay chuckles and gets a lot of mileage out of Caitlin Delaney's performance that it manages to make for a watchable seventy-one minutes.

Kelly plays teacher Steve who is planning on moving in with girlfriend (and one-time student) Amy (Delaney). Despite warnings from his slacker friend, Carl (scripter John Muggleton), Steve decides it's about time he purposed to her.

It's too bad then that he accidentally ends-up backing his car over her and ends-up killing her. But things aren't as awful as they could be as Steve decides to test out Amy's interests in black magic by performing a ritual that manages to bring her back from the dead as a pale skinned zombie who's always, to quote his newly undead love, "Hunnngrrryyy."

After trying unsuccessfully to deal with Amy's new condition (Delaney does a great job here acting like a stiff rag doll and chewing on anything, and everything, in sight), Steve decides they should hide off in a distant friend's cabin until he can figure out what to do. But that plan doesn't work when Carl and a couple of his other friends arrive for a weekend of partying.

My Dead Girlfriend is Kelly's attempt to make a dopey zombie comedy that piles on the puns as well as a little bit of bloodshed, and in some ways he's succeeded. The set-up and early scenes of Amy as a zombie work rather well only for the movie to stumble a little bit when Kelly and Muggleton cut off their cast by placing them in the middle of nowhere. That's too bad because the scene where Steve's attempting to hide Amy from the superintendent with wacky results could've been a jump-off point for all sorts of "fish out of water" zombie goodness as Amy stumbles around town trying to eat everyone while Steve fumbles after her - but, alas, it's not to be.

Still, the finished product here does manage to be somewhat entertaining and it certainly looks better than a lot of indie stuff that's out there, but the most positive things My Dead Girlfriend has to offer is a strong musical score by Howard Sonnenburg and lead actress Delaney - she's good enough to make me want to see more of her in the near future.

Up next for Kelly is a remake of the 1991 no-budgeter, Kingdom Of The Vampires, which just so happens to be the first movie directed by J.R. Bookwalter, the head honcho of Tempe Video who distribute all of Kelly's flicks. (Chris Hartley, 12/5/06)

Directed By: Brett Kelly.
Written By: John Muggleton.

Starring: Brett Kelly, Caitlin Delaney, John Muggleton, Anastasia Kimmett.

Picture Ratio: Full Frame.

Picture Quality: Considering the budget level here there is some mild fuzziness to the picture at times (mostly during darker shots), but at least it's free of any debris and is quite watchable.

Extras: We get a trailer (plus trailers for 3 of Kelly's other movies and 4 Tempe releases), a blooper reel, two deleted scenes (including the original ending, which needed cutting), cast and crew interviews, Kelly's short film The Pretty Lie and a commentary track with Kelly, composer Sonnenburg, effects guy Ralph Gething and co-producer Jodi Pittman.

Visit Tempe Video or Brett Kelly for more info.