Has anyone else noticed that the amount of zombie films produced in a year has grown on the same graph as the legalization of marihuana? I suspect people are sitting around smoking, brainstorming ideas like, 'Dude, what if we added zombies to "The Breakfast Club?"' Okay, we noticed.

This is a fun zombie cult film that starts off with our stereotyped kids in detention and moves on from there. Willow (Alexa Nikolas) is the goth chick and the voice of reason who comes up with profound zombie metaphors. Eddie (Jacob Zachar) is the picked on geek, who doesn't have asthma and is not a level 18 wizard. Janet (Christa B. Allen) is our popular head cheerleader with Brad (Jayson Blair) as her jock/ROTC boyfriend who claims he is going to "officer's boot camp" after high school. Jimmy (Max Adler) is another jock who follows Brad. Ash (Justin Chon) is a likeable skateboard stoner who sells jocks Midal and tells them it is hash that won't show up on a drug test.

The film gives us a very quick character build up before the zombie attack. Character is later developed in the library, considered a safe haven ("not a single student would be caught dead there"). What made this film good was the dialog...."Stop taunting the undead!" And the attention to background details such as the large number of pencils stuck in the ceiling in detention and the sign in the background "Teen Sexual Awareness Week" like they need one.

I got several howls out of this feature. Good old fashion fun.

Parental Guide: F-bombs, near sex. Brief magazine nudity. Christa B. Allen in bra getting groped

An eclectic group of high-school teens in detention—cheerleader Janet (Christa B. Allen) and her boyfriend Brad (Jayson Blair),geek Eddie (Jacob Zachar),pretty goth Willow (Alexa Nikolas),jock Jimmy (Max Adler),and stoner Ash (Justin Chon)—find themselves trapped in the school library after a zombie outbreak turns all of their classmates into ravenous gutmunchers.

Detention of the Dead is harmless enough fun, but in a world where a new zombie film seems to claw its way to the surface on a daily basis, it simply doesn't do enough to distinguish itself from the competition. The characters are all stereotypes—although that's forgivable given that the film is clearly inspired in part by The Breakfast Club—but for Detention of the Dead to have been really successful, it would have needed far better gags, a few genuine scares, and much more creative zombie mayhem. I'd liked to have seen director Alex Craig Mann really go to town with the splatter, but then again, maybe the budget for such carnage just wasn't available.

I rate Detention of the Dead a passable 5 out of 10, although I was tempted to deduct a point for the obvious in-jokes, most notably the characters named after classics of the genre, something that has been done to death in comedy horror films over the years (the library is named after make-up legend Tom Savini; Brad, Janet and Eddie are all characters from The Rocky Horror Picture Show; Willow is from Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Ash is, of course, from The Evil Dead; admittedly, I haven't the foggiest who Jimmy is named after).

Breakfast Club Meets the Living Dead. The Harvard-potential geek (Jacob Zachar),horror-loving goth chick (Alexa Nikolas),popular cheerleader babe (Christa B. Allen),the cheerleader's bully jock star dumb-as-a-brick quarterback beau (Jayson Blair),jock quarterback's football pal (Max Adler),and the dope-head skateboarder (Justin Chon) all get detention and must try and survive a high school of zombie students and faculty.

This is the zombie joke: a host of high school stereotypes pitted against halls and classrooms of the hungry, walking dead. There's even the expected "smoke dope and share" scene with indie music tunes underlying the absurd situation. There's the idealistic goth who doesn't pretend to be anything but herself surveying the rest and telling the dork that being your own individual instead of following the status quo is the way to go: it was obvious from the get-go she was the cool kid who many of the "misfits" and "rebels" respond to. The dork becomes the hero. The cheerleader realizes her jock boyfriend is a jerk and could do better while bitching about how "difficult it is to be popular". The pothead doesn't want the zombie crisis to damper his mood, opting for "chillaxing" instead of falling prey to the moody blues. There's a running sight gag of the decapitated head of the zombie detention teacher, with the pothead especially enjoying tormenting her. I guess there's only so many times I can see intestines jerked from stomachs or zombies munching on arms; the effect has just wore off.

The film does have "ass munching"…that is a first for me as a zombie movie viewer. There is an American flag handle stabbed into the head of a zombie librarian. As you might expect, the cheerleader's skirt is jerked away with her running around in what's left of her skimpy uniform, lots of legs and bimbo tendencies. The goth has the hots for the geek but the geek has the hots for the cheerleader; eventually it all sorts itself out. There's the ventilation shaft attempted escape…undermined by a zombie rat! There's even a conversation between geek and cheerleader over why they cannot date. All of this playing out as all the teens and teachers they once knew are now trying to get at them and eat them! The pothead can't leave behind his pot and succumbs to the zombie rat (which, no matter how grotesque, looks like a hand puppet!). At least the cheerleader makes out with the geek...that's something right? There are scenes of legs, pencils, sports equipment, and books (!) used as weapons of defense! Christa B. Allen gets down to nothing but her undergarments and says, "I don't want to die a virgin." The geek gets to see her in bra and panties, allowed to cop a feel and get a kissy. Bodies go over the roof at the top of the building. The high school gym has plenty of "athlete zombies" perhaps bitten during PE. How does it all start? One teenager gets bit by some infected guy outside the school and brings it to the school where it all goes to hell. Simple way to get the ball rolling. There's some funny moments along the way, but after a while the zombie genre's "comic juice" is certain to be squeezed dry. The cast, though, gives the material their all. I especially liked Nikolas who sums up what she sees throughout realistically and pragmatically, all the while dressed in black with fish net stockings. This does stretch credibility to the max, but the zom-com is know for that.