Eat Brains Love (2019) User Reviews

Road trip for brains

[kosmasp · 6/10 · 31 October 2019]

This is not new, but at the beginning it does feel quite fresh. Throughout there are some fine zingers and dialogue lines, but it never really achieves or reaches hights that would put thin in another league. It's a fun little movie though and if you are a fan of comedy and horror combined (I know some despise that formula), than you will be satisfied.

Having said that, do not expect any super acting or big effects (though for the budget this had, it looks at least ok). If you're down with that, just have ... fun

Fun but nothing new

[laurainmark · 4/10 · 16 February 2020]

The bad dad joke in the title tells you the level of humor to expect. Sarah Yelkin from "Happy Death Day 2" is the big draw here. The big problem is that this movie suffers in comparison to the films it tries to copy. "Warm Bodies" did the zombie romance way better. "Ahh Zombies" did the zombie perspective better. "Cooties" did schoolyard carnage better. This film sets gore at about 7 and humor at 3. It pales in comparison to it's predecessors. Still, it's not a total wash. Get drunk with your friends and you can still have fun riffing on the cheesy scenes. I did sit through the credits...so I knew who to blame. This brings nothing new to the table. It's not one to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.

Was nothing special

[nottoday-572-807361 · 5/10 · 15 February 2020]

It had a few laughs, script dialogue was a tad overblown in some scenes, killing the jokes. Main characters acting was good enough for a indie movie, though it wasn't consistent throughout the whole movie.

The movie is average, its good in parts, and bad in parts.

Not an outstanding zombie movie in any way...

[paul_haakonsen · 4/10 · 20 February 2020]

A zombie movie, check. And I am there, as I am drawn to anything even remotely zombiesque.

However, this 2019 movie titled "Eat Brains Love" from writers Mike Herro and David Strauss just wasn't a particularly outstanding or memorable movie when it comes to zombie movies. Sure, it was watchable, but that was also about it. I can't claim to think that director Rodman Flender really made anything worthwhile from what was readily available in form of script and characters.

The movie's storyline was straightforward, albeit rather generic. It didn't really offer much of anything extraordinary. And the thing with the characters being able to switch between human and zombie states was just downright stupid, and it was something that definitely didn't appeared to me in the least.

I will say that the acting in the movie was adequate, taking into consideration the limitations imposed from the script and storyline.

The movie did have sufficient gore to make it worthwhile to sit through, which actually counts for something, I suppose. And the special effects in the movie were adequate - but not top of the line for a zombie movie.

I managed to sit through the movie, although this is hardly a movie that I would recommend that you spend your time, money or effort upon. There are far better zombie comedies and zombie romance movies readily available.

they ran out of money and had to cut the ending short...

[natcalgary · 6/10 · 16 February 2020]

Or that is how it seemed.

this zom-com was typical. average jokes, average cgi, average acting, average kill shots. i was getting into it and was excited to see what was about to happen... when all the sudden the credits started rolling.

hmmm sequel? or sopranos ending?

5.9

NOT That Good What I Expected.

[MandalBros-5 · 5/10 · 6 June 2021]

I searched for Best zombie comedies on Google and in one website this movie was on top. Because it got 100% rating in rottentomatoes. So, I started to watch the film.

It started in a good way because it's idea was very good. But at the end it became a forgettable film for me.

Mainly because no character is likable here specially the character of Sarah Yarkin, the NBC girl. Her character was the most irritating and illogical. Also male lead acted very badly. Most of the jokes didn't work.

Only you'll see zombies eating lots of fleshes, that's all. Finally, this movie could've been much much better with the same IDEA. If you're a Zombie movie lover you CAN WATCH it FOR ONCE.

Available on MUBI.

© MandalBros.

Had some moments

[dar0417 · 6/10 · 16 April 2020]

This film sounded bad but turned out a lot better then expected. Had some funny and very bloody moments. If you can stand some gore then this one is for you.

Road Trip with zombie silliness

[punisherversion1 · 5/10 · 21 March 2023]

Eat Brains Love Directed by Rodman Flender. Written by Mike Herro and David Strauss

Sometimes you can just tell when somebody who is far outside of the teenage realm writes and makes a movie trying to be cool and hip with those kids. Yeah here we are with the film equivalent of the Steve Buscemi meme. I do admire the effort to make this flow with hyperactive energy. There is style to spare and that is impressive in a subject matter picked over to death.

Eat Brains Love is about two teenagers, one who has a crush on the other who become zombies and embark on a road trip while being chased by a governmental agency filled with psychics and trigger happy agents as they find an underground community of zombies trying to live their lives. It's your standard issue road trip teen comedy and it also isn't one of those. Naturally the guy is a pot smoking loser who can't bring himself to tell the girl how he feels. Naturally she's the popular cheerleader with the quarterback bully as his boyfriend. All standard issue boilerplate stuff up to this point. Now how you become a zombie in this film is very different than in previous zombie flicks.

You become a zombie through sex. Much like the slow moving, always persistent ghosts of It Follows, it passed through sex. They don't really do much with this other than make a few jokes. The jokes provide some chuckles but mostly groans because it is trying entirely too hard. It is filled with people doing silly things for a joke and it hits those beats you've seen before. It is a fairly short film although not as short as Puppet Master:Doktor Death(59 minutes). It doesn't wear out its welcome but you can also tell it doesn't have much story to tell either.

I will say it has a strange opinion on women. They don't seem to have much beyond falling for the stoner. The psychic chasing them and his cheerleading crush. They exist only as it pertains to the stoner character. This is fine, I suppose but it would have made it a more interesting film to flesh them out. They have to be more than archetypes to feel real and the jokes will land more in that way.

The performances are all good. Patrick Fabian from Better Call Saul knows how to do smarmy like nobody's business. He is always a welcome sight on screen for me. Sarah Yarkin was a pleasant presence. She has some comedic chops and she was better here than in Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

It does revel in the gore. It has plenty of intestine chomping for anybody who enjoys that. The make up effects work but then again they aren't called on to do much. This movie is fine. It serves its purposes. It doesn't do anything that hasn't already been done and you might not be annoyed by the characters.

This is available to watch for free on FreeVee and Tubi. Tubi is a veritable wonderland of a streaming service.

I give this movie a C.

Fun Zom/Com!

[Reviews_of_the_Dead · 6/10 · 4 November 2019]

This was the second film of the opening night of the Nightmares Film Festival. Just looking at the title, I figured this would be definitely be a Zom/Com for sure. Interestingly enough, this was the film's Eastern United States premiere and the director was actually in the crowd as well. The synopsis is when Jake (Jake Cannavale) and his dream girl Amanda (Angelique Rivera) contract a mysterious zombie virus and attack their classmates, they must elude the government to search for a cure.

We are first given voice-over narration to get us up to speed. There's a zombie virus that is going around, but it is kept a secret. It doesn't spread in the traditional way, as it only is transmitted through sex. The government has created a secret group to hunt them down. This group uses psychics to help find where they are as well.

It then shifts to the room of Jake Stephens as he's making out with Amanda Blake. She goes to get on his bed and we soon realize this is a dream, after he's started to eat her. This causes him to wake up and we get an interesting interaction between Jake and his father. It turns out that Jake is a slacker and that he failed a career test.

At school we see the real Amanda with her boyfriend, Chazz Slade (Ty Headlee). He's over the top in his anger and goes off Jake for looking at his girlfriend. She tells him that they're done. In class they have to watch a video about safe sex practices, but it oddly shows an encounter between Jake and a random girl he hooked up with.

In the lunch room we see that both Jake and Amanda are zombies. They attack their classmates and it is a bloodbath. The person who narrated earlier turns out to be Cass (Sarah Yarkin). She's a teenage psychic and she's there with her partner, Tom (Jim Titus), to hunt down these zombies. She soon falls for Jake though when she uses his weed pen to track him. This takes them to a parking lot where the Jake and Amanda are trying to get away. Tom is stopped though by a couple of women, Grace (Kristin Daniel) and Summer (Kym Jackson). They're both also zombies and fill in the younger couple of how they survive.

The government won't stop hunting them though. A false report is put out about what happened and Cass uses her abilities to erase the memories of surviving students. We learn that her superior is Patrick Fabian and he's got a nefarious plan with what to do with the zombies that are brought in alive.

I should actually point out that the writers Mike Herro and David Strauss introduce an interesting concept here for their zombies. Anyone who turns is still a normal person, until they get hungry or their adrenaline starts to pump. I've seen a similar take on the werewolf idea, just not making is sexually transmitted. These zombies can also run and still talk actually. I personally didn't mind this change since they went ahead and gave us the basic rules here. The title is a bit misleading though, they do eat more than just the brains.

As I stated in the beginning, this is most definitely a horror comedy, leaning more toward the comedy if I'm going to be honest. I did find this to be very funny though, as it cracked me up throughout. Jake really made me laugh as he embodies that stoner kid character. He also plays well off of Amanda and Cass. The situations we get work toward the humor as well. If you know me, these types of films either work or don't for me and this one definitely did.

Something I wasn't the biggest fan of was the idea of the psychics. I get why they're here, it helps move along the exposition. It also allows Cass, who has never actually met Jake fall in love with him. Talking about being in love, it is a tad unbelievable that Amanda would fall for someone like Jake. The leeway I give is that they're dealing with the same thing so that connection does make sense.

To shift this to the pacing of the film, it has a runtime of 87 minutes. I think this is the perfect length. We are introduced to the world and the rules of it immediately, in which time it really gets right into it. The drawback to this being a comedy is that it doesn't really build tension. The humor really provides a bit too much levity. It really is more of a comedy with horror and romance elements for sure. The ending was quite interesting as well. I don't mind that it doesn't completely explain and leaves us with a bit of wondering. I think I heard this is based on a series of novels, so I wonder if this does well enough if there will be sequel.

As for the acting, I think it's pretty good. Cannavale was hilarious in this. He is quite oblivious and I like that he's the unpopular guy who is in love with the beautiful girl in school. He gets nervous and it felt natural. Rivera plays well off of him and she does a bit of humor too. She is also absolutely gorgeous and we see her in bra and panties quite a few times. Yarkin is also cute and I like her as the opposite of Amanda. She is quirky and it definitely helps her role. There's also an ongoing joke about how she looks like Riley from the Alien films which made me laugh. There's also a cameo from Fabian that worked for me and I'd say the rest of the cast rounded this film out for what was needed.

Something that I was pretty impressed by here was the effects. They went practical for most of them from what I could tell. There were a few things that looked fake, but we get some wounds that definitely looked real and the blood was solid as well. Being is a comedy, you can go a bit over the top with effects and still keep me on board. They were some CGI effects as well, especially when coming to the psychic aspects which didn't bother me. The film was also shot well in my opinion.

Now with that said, this is definitely a fun film that has some flaws. It is an interesting comedy with horror and romance elements. I like the new type of zombie that is created here as it really kind of sets this one apart as well as how it spreads. I think that it has a good runtime, but being that it is a comedy, it really didn't build the necessary tension. I never really felt the characters were in peril. I did like the acting though across the board and the effects were pretty solid as well. The soundtrack didn't really stand out to me, but it also didn't hurt the movie either. I found this film to be above average. If you're a fan of horror/comedies, especially with zombies, then give this one a viewing.

One of least funny

[ks-60500 · 3/10 · 27 February 2020]

Zombie movie in a comedy wasn't that many, but this totally screw up as nothing funny. Just boring and bloody eating parts are the only reason I rate 3. Expect it's a comedy but it's not.

Super Heroes don't eat their friends

[nogodnomasters · 10/10 · 20 May 2020]

Cheerleader Amanda Blake (Angelique Rivera ) and stoner Jake (Jake Cannavale ) catch a zombie STD and have lunch at the school cafeteria. It isn't long before they are on the run. They are being tailed by a psychic named Cassandra (Sarah Yarkin) who was more fun than Forest Whitaker. There are several pop culture references. I enjoyed the dark comedy and dialogue and laughed for much of the feature. Niche audience. If you like this one, check out "Night of the Living Deb."

Guide: F-word. sex. Fake male nudity.

Teeny bobber zombie flick

[saiken-30341 · 6/10 · 15 February 2020]

This movie is aimed at a younger crowd than me, I'm sure. But, it's pretty good for the type of movie that it is. A slightly fresh angle on the zombie theme with pretty good acting effects. They left the ending kinda open it seemed like to me. Possibly hoping for a sequel? If it looks like something you would enjoy, you probably will.

Fairly uninteresting, fairly unimaginative

[selfdestructo · 5/10 · 21 September 2023]

Full disclosure: After watching 50 minutes, I shut off Eat Brains Love because it failed to hold my attention. I finish every movie I watch, no matter how bad, so tonight I completed it, and re-watched the opening 50.

Ok, I LOVED Idle Hands, this movie has that same director. And I'll watch anything with zombies. Red flag: This movie actually boasts that it's a zom-rom-com. Please. Name me ONE good zom-rom-com from the last 3 decades. Think about it. WRONG! They all suck. And if you said "Warm Bodies," shame on you.

That being said, I was just not interested in any of the characters, or their friends. ESPECIALLY the two leads. I mean, come on. Dumb stoner/vaper meets popular cheerleader, discover they're both zombies, go on a road trip together, fall in love, AND, this being the 2000-whatevers, they're... ETHICAL zombies. I could not have crapped a crappier premise.

So they're hunted by this zombie task force, who want the zombies alive so they can use them for such things as a government zombie defense force. *YAWN* Seen it. By far, the most interesting character is the female psychic zombie hunter. Unfortunately, she's got a crush on the cute boy zombie they're pursuing, so that gets all mushy.

There is sporadic fun to be had along the way. As far as romantic zombie movies go, this one at least earns its R rating. You got blood and gore, swearing, adult themes, er, male nudity, if that floats your boat (2019 called), stuff actually found in a real horror movie. The ball-ripping/feasting scene is a riot!

I'm giving this movie a generous 5. I'd rank it higher, if say, it had interesting, and not stereotypical characters, and a more original premise. Then again, I'm asking the filmmakers to re-write AND re-cast this boner!! Who am I kidding?

I can't stop without mentioning the ending. It is as much of a non-ending as non-endings get, which spells... SEQUEL. Another horror movie sin, unless you're some iconic franchise. That's, how many sins? I dunno, I lost track. (The biggest one = Boring).

horrible

[mickeyfan-26642 · 1/10 · 20 December 2023]

I am all for comedy mixed with horror but if it is done in a good way. I tried watching this one last night and eventually had to turn it off. The leads are bland or trying too hard/ maybe a mix of both but anyway i felt nothing for the stoner and cheerleader relationship. The gore/makeup special effects could of been done better. So many other zombie comedies have been done better both with jokes and plot... warm bodies come to mind for example or freaks of nature. Ones where you care about the leads and invested in the humor or horror aspects... this one has none of that and just seems like it is thrown together by a team of writers and directors that wanted to make a movie that they thought was hip but ultimately is too much and not in a fun or interesting way. Ultimately find something else to watch instead.

No Ending

[nixflixnpix · 4/10 · 22 February 2022]

It has no ending.

Jokes are good. Budget is great! Horror and acting are okay. But. No ending, woulda been an 8/10 if it had an ending. Fun but dumb.

It's a zombie movie for Instagram fans

[josephmpapp · 4/10 · 27 November 2023]

This is not a bad movie as it is shot well and makes decent use of its budget for costumes, sets, makeup, and crew.

The actors are fine. The take a silly premise and handle it well.

The story is really dumb. That's because it's playing the same jokes we've seen in other zombie comedies. A stoner and a cheerleader get a sexually transmitted zombie virus and are on the run from a government agency that uses a psychic geek girl to track them. The geek girl has a thing for the stoner. So as the Stoner and Cheerleader do their road trip, they use a list of sex offenders to act like zombie vigilantes. But, because big government isn't 100% transparent, geek girl ends up helping stoner and cheerleader to stop the enslavement of those infected with the zombie virus.

Pretty silly. Its not really a good or bad movie. It's just forgettable.

Rodman Flender does it again!

[wheresthepunch · 10/10 · 3 November 2019]

I loved the film! That other critic doesn't proofread his reviews, therefore his review is void. You've got to be good at what you do before you critique someone else's work.