Die-ner (Get It?)

Plot synopsis:
Ken arrives in a small diner and makes small talk with the waitress, Rose. After listening to Rose's story, Ken reveals that he's a serial killer, and he quickly kills her and the cook, Fred. Ken cleans up and hides the bodies, but before he can leave the diner, he hears Kathy and Rob, an unhappily married couple, pulling in. Ken decides to bide his time and wait for an opening, and he pretends to be employed at the diner. As Ken prepares to strike, the local sheriff, Duke, appears. Frustrated by all the interruptions and questions, Ken attempts to bluff his way past Duke, but Fred and Rose stumble out of the storage room and leave Duke satisfied. Not sure what to make of the situation, Ken plays along. When the zombies attack Duke, Ken takes Kathy and Rob hostage, tapes down all the zombies, and decides to wait out the zombie attack. After he dies from his wounds, Duke comes back as a zombie, and they tape him down, too. Kathy and Rob attempt to deal with Ken, the zombies, and Jesse, Duke's talkative deputy, who shows up trying to find out Duke's fate. Eventually, Rob is killed by the zombies, and Jesse kills Kathy. Ken attempts to escape from the diner, but he is captured by the zombies and torn apart before he can make it to safety.

Tags: flashback

Review:
Die(ner) is a simple little horror film made for very, very little money.
When accepting that, one can find quite a lot of enjoyment out of it.It's about a serial killer who murders a waitress and short-order cook during the graveyard shift of a roadside diner, only to run into some problems.
The first is an arguing couple who come in and want to be served and the second is that his victims are about to come back to life as zombies.
Throw in an old sheriff, some wry dialogue, and some originality and you have the recipe for a fun little microbudget horror movie.The only drawback is, as with most low budget films, the action is low and some of the performances are stiff, but the lead playing the serial killer is quite charismatic.
Just give it a chance, especially if you're disillusioned by Hollywood horror movies..
Ken is a personable, talkative serial killer who has just dispatched the late-night skeleton crew at an out-of-the-way diner.
When a bickering young couple and a local cop turn up and start to smell a rat, Ken is ready to add to the body count.
But the bodies in the freezer aren't content to stay dead, and things quickly get out of control.When you approach a movie with a title like this one, you don't tend to expect subtlety.
But Die-ner's grim opening sequence (in a series of close-ups showing Ken cleaning up the traces of his work) tips you off that this is a horror movie before it's anything else.
The low-key comedy proceeds mostly from the well-drawn characters' reactions to the situation.
The young couple is faced with a double threat: they can't flee the zombies because of the psycho killer holding them hostage.
Josh Grote (in his first film performance) does a great job as Ken, who is less terrified than utterly fascinated by the zombie rising.
"I kill people all the time," he says, "but they've never come back before." Louisiana actor Larry Purtell is hilarious as the tired, ineffectual sheriff, who gets taken out of the game pretty quickly and spends most of the movie groaning on the floor.The film is fairly light on the gore, but there is one well-done zombie bite and a bit of hand trauma.
That aside, it's a clever take on the zombie and serial killer genres, informed by lots of older movies but never beholden to them.
I think if more people see this, it has the potential to generate some buzz.
If a DVD were available (hopefully with a different title), I might be interested in seeing it again.P.S. Lead actor Josh Grote appears to be in no way related to Edward Norton, despite looking and sounding exactly like him..
First of all, I don't understand how this movie can end up with "KFZ - Kentucky Fried Zombie" on the movie cover.
It just doesn't make sense, and is just a lawsuit waiting to happen.I enjoy zombie movies tremendously, and tend to sit down and watch just about anything even remotely zombie.
And it is extremely rare that I have to give up on a zombie movie.
The zombies in this movie were so bad that I was laughing most of the time.
You just got to love the "let's paint their faces gray, but forget about the neck and the rest of the body" mindset.
It is just so 70's and 80's, and it doesn't work in this day and age.The story in "Die-ner (Get It?)", well as far as I got into the movie, then it is about a loner coming into a late open diner and having a conversation with a waitress.
But he turns out to be a killer and does what he does best.
More late night visitor come to the diner.
But those killed just will not stay dead, but come back as zombies.Zombies?
I am certain that there is an audience out there for these kind of low budget zombie movies.
And I am more than certain that I will never make a second trip back to this movie to finish it.
A low-budget Zombie Farcical thriller.
A charming wise-cracking serial killer, sets up shop at an all-nite diner.
A bickering couple comes in and just as he's about to get started, here comes the dearly departed.
Now this isn't a barricade the restaurant from the oncoming zombie apocalypse, in fact they don't even lock the doors.
As well as realizing their host is a serial killer who they have to escape from while avoiding the zombies.
In one funny scene they ask the killer why he has a bag full of tape and rope?
Independent Serial Killer zombie flick!.
I was surprised to find myself pretty glued to the screen on this wonderfully done independent horror/Comedy.
You can tell they didn't have that big of a budget, but still they did a fairly decent job with the effects and the acting was fairly well too.
The serial killer carries a lot of the film and it doesn't wear out its welcome at 80 minutes long.
I do admit some of the humor was a bit corny,but it makes up for it with some very funny moments also and is a great clash of Slasher/Zombie Horror.I Highly recommended this for Independent Horror genre film lovers with 83 minutes to kill..
Works as a black comedy, but fails as zombie gorn.
I seem to be one of the few people who really liked this movie.
Honestly, I'm a little surprised at all of my fellow B movie fans who proclaim how tolerant they are of low budgets, yet give this movie such a low rating.I love the anti-hero Ken, a wise-ass serial killer whose victims mysteriously start to reanimate as zombies.
He's easily the best part of the movie, and, admittedly, most of the movie revolves around him, rather than the zombies, which I'm sure ended up annoying a lot of zombie fans.
If you go into this movie expecting a zombie bloodbath, you'll probably end up being a bit disappointed.Speaking of which, there isn't really all that much gore in this movie, and what gore does exist tends to be rather low budget and amateurish.
It's certainly not the worst that I've seen, but there are Troma movies with better gore effects.
If you find Troma movies unwatchable, then you might want to avoid Die-ner.Much of the humor in Die-ner is quite black, as befitting the subject matter and protagonist.
Early on, Ken tells a talkative waitress that people spill their guts to him all the time.
A lot of the scenes are played for dark humor, rather than gore.
Pointless flashbacks, rambling back story, and repetitive, dreamy music make up a good chunk of the movie.
I thought it was awesome, but most people seem to get bored out of their minds.
I thought that they all contributed to the surreal atmosphere, while making fun of traditional horror movies.It's not a masterpiece by any means, but I had a lot of fun.
Perhaps something like this has a very limited appeal, but you'd think that the title would scare off most people expecting a serious, gut-wrenching zombie film.
It works best as a black comedy and parody of zombie movies, and I'd recommend it mainly to Troma fans.
It's not zany or exploitative enough to be a Troma movie, but it may appeal to fans of their low budget slasher/horror comedies..
At a late-night diner on a remote highway, serial killer Ken (Joshua Grote) wastes waitress Rose (Maria Olsen) and kills cook Fred (Jorge Montalvo), then waits for more victims to enter the establishment.
Soon enough, a bickering married couple stop for a break (Liesel Kopp and Parker Quinn), but before Ken can murdlerise his customers, local cop Duke (Larry Purtell) also calls in for a coffee.
Then, as Ken tries to figure out what to do next, his previous victims suddenly come back to life as flesh eating zombies!The fact that 'Die-ner (Get It?)' feels the need to draw attention to its pathetic titular pun suggests that the makers of this film have zero confidence in their work.
Released on DVD in the UK under the equally terrible title of 'Kentucky Fried Zombies', this horror comedy is poorly written, clumsily directed, laugh-free and scare-less bottom-of-the-barrel zombie tosh that really drags.
I feel sorry for Joshua Grote, who actually puts in a reasonable performance as serial killer Ken: he gives it his best shot, but never stands a chance amidst the dull undead nonsense that unfolds.The one thing that can often save a low-to-zero budget zombie flick—the blood and guts—is in short supply, leaving this particular viewer thinking that the 25p I paid for the DVD was 25p too much..
First I want to point out the only actor I enjoyed 100%.
That was Joshua Grote.
Now the rest of the cast was pretty good at their parts.
Not all the zombies though, some of the zombies were pretty bad.
This film has a lot of dialog in it and Grote is speaking most of it.
His character is not all there in the head and he did a great job of acting that way.
I enjoyed watching him talk.
But too much talking in the film lead to being a little bored.
There was a couple gore scenes, but no real excitement.
The scare factor was low too.
Also there was some things that they touched base on in the film that were never resolved.
One important thing had to do with Grote's character and I wish they would of resolved it.
But overall it was a fun movie to watch.
But it had just as many good moments as bad ones..
A fun little movie for those who don't take things too seriously.
I'll start my short review by mentioning that the copy I got had the title 'KFZ: Kentucky Fried Zombie' - not massively important, but I thought I'd mention it.
I picked this up from a pound shop, so frankly I had low expectations.
However, much to my surprise I actually found the movie to be quite enjoyable; it just goes to prove that you shouldn't judge a DVD by it's box (or price!).
It's amazing how a small budget can go such a long way when the people involved in the project are so eager to put in a good performance, and this is certainly the case here.
In particular, I have to praise Joshua Grote in the role of Ken. He seems to me a cross between James Van Der Beek and Edward Norton and brings plenty of humour to the movie, appearing more than comfortable in front of the camera.
I predict he will have a strong career in future if he gets the break he needs and I'd certainly like to see him in more movies.
Everyone else in the film does pretty well too and for the most part, the direction is more than adequate, occasionally being quite stylish in it's presentation.
The script deserves praise and the music is also really good (the special effects aren't too bad either - I've seen much worse!).
It's no masterpiece by any means, but I've sat through enough big budget drivel and visited IMDb to find a rating well above that.
This movie was entertaining enough to hold my attention from start to finish, it made me laugh for all the right reasons and the makers deserve credit for putting together a decent little movie on such a small budget..
Die-ner (Get it?)...
Our story starts with Ken sitting casually in a rural diner chatting with his waitress, Rose.
This conversation is tongue in cheek and results in the death of both Rose and the only other person in the diner, the cook.
Of course, this is because Ken is a serial killer.
While hiding the bodies, Ken is interrupted by Rob and Kathy who bicker about her want for a divorce not moments before entering the diner.
Tending to them (with the intent of killing them, Ken is again interrupted by Sheriff Duke who strolls in for a coffee.
Mysteriously, the two dead bodies hidden in the freezer reanimate and end up biting Duke in the neck.
Rob and Kathy realize Ken is a killer and are essentially held hostage by him as he plays around carelessly for much of the film.
Eventually Rob is eaten by a zombie in a truck outside the diner and Kathy is shot by a incompetent deputy sheriff and eaten by zombies.
Ken gets his by being eaten by a group of zombies.
Oh, and a very important denouement of a zombie getting into a truck.
Too much rides on Ken talking mostly to himself as other characters whine and wince uncomfortably.
This of course is probably important as the whole film occurs on happenstance so to fill the void from one event to the next, needless chatter is placed.
Characters don't progress in any arch and the end result is everyone dies leaving me as a viewer to wonder...what was the point?
Was I supposed to side with Ken and his 2 cent serial killer philosophies which seem regurgitated from many other films or the whiney do nothing couple who have no respect for each other?
As this is a zombie film, gore has to me mentioned.
In fact, there's really only one decent zombie bite which is pretty tame and standard.
Continuity suffers a bit as boom shadows can be seen several times as well as blinds being open then closed at various times as well as general prop placement.
Also story continuity is lacking, They're supposed to be somewhere in rural Idaho where it's "the loneliest place on the loneliest highway" yet at the end there are 20-30 zombies pouring into the diner...
where'd these people come from?
Acting conveyed little for me as the characters are so unlikeable to begin with it's hard to say that had they been done better the story and film would have been different.
Camera work is basically fine minus the fact that in many shots actors are framed awkwardly and focus at times is poor.
(I say this is basically fine because you can't pick too much on such things given budget and what the film apparently was) Overall, just not very good.
I give credit to Josh Grote (Ken) who I think did pretty well overall.
And yes he does look and at times sound very much like Edward Norton.
Honestly, if you take Paul Rudd and Ed Norton you have Josh Grote.
I can't recommend this film based on the idea that I truly don't believe it's entertaining.
This film has little going for it other than being produced in 8 days and for $500,000.
Also called "KFZ: Kentucky Fried Zombies," "Die-ner" is probably one of the worst films I've ever seen.The script was probably written in crayon and, I'm theorizing, the entire film was made to just try and milk some money out of zombie and horror fans because absolutely no effort was put into this film.
Sure, one could argue that a lack of a budget was to blame (clearly this movie was made for about 10 dollars and change) but, after sitting through it, I would argue the entire film was made just to try and make some cash off of people seeing the halfway decent box art on the DVD and decided to spend the 5 bucks it will put them back after they pull it from the bargain bin.There's not much of a story to speak of (and the plot clearly forgotten about) and, not surprisingly, the acting is terrible--unless you're talking about the main character, the annoying serial killer who tries (and fails) to be charismatically cool.
However, the actor is a tremendous source of amusement as it is obvious he thinks he's the greatest actor to ever live despite looking like he moonlights as a Bud Bundy impersonator.The zombies in this film were lazily created, the camera work is painful to endure and look at, there's no horror or comedy to speak of in this poorly defined dark comedy (it's just insulting to even attempt to classify this one as such) and the entire movie is just a gigantic waste of time and it's only real purpose seems to be as a reminder of all the things you could be doing that would actually end with something productive and a better use of your time.This movie is lazy filmmaking at its more obvious..
A Comedy without Much Humor.
A serial killer named "Ken" (Joshua Grote) walks into a diner during the late-night shift and kills three people.
When two more people, "Kathy" (Liesel Kopp) and "Rob" (Parker Quinn) also come into the diner he decides to kill them as well.
But before he can do that a policeman by the name of "Duke" (Larry Purtell) just happens to come in too.
So while he is pretending to be a new waiter, all of a sudden the people he killed (and hid away) come back to life as zombies.
At this point the film begins to get strange.
Anyway, I thought Joshua Grote did a decent job as far as that goes.
But the plot appeared to drift rather aimlessly and the film just seemed to lack cohesion.
For example, when the zombies were first encountered it seemed that Ken, Kathy and Rob were more surprised than shocked or terrified.
Likewise, the zombies should have been more frightening.
Anway, when I first decided to watch this movie I thought it was a zombie-comedy.
So what was left was a comedy without much humor and a horror film without much horror.
In short, I would recommend this to zombie enthusiasts only--as they're probably the only ones who might find this remotely interesting.