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Last Rites of the Dead is the best zombie movie I’ve seen since Shaun of Dead, but even more than that, the first hour or so is also the most relevant since George Romero’s original Night of the Living Dead. It’s a real political allegory that is frighteningly real in this era of Mexican-hating Minutemen, as we’re introduced to a world where the dead come back to life. In a smart twist, they are not flesh-eating mindless monsters, but rotting humans who still retain all their brain functions, memories and mannerisms—they’re just like you and me except they have no heartbeat.

Soon, a rift develops between the living and the dead, with the dead becoming the object of irrational ire, as the dead are routinely victimized, abused and treated as second-class citizen for the lack-of-color of their skin. One of these newly deceased is Angela (a completely stirring Gina Ramsden) who was shot in the head by her Guido-boyfriend, who in addition to being a jealous nut is also a dead-hater, moving from beating corpses in the park, gay-basher-style to joining a paramilitaristic army hell-bent on ridding the world of the zombie menace. Angela, tired of attending useless support groups, also falls into a new group, a cult that introduces her to the delights of the flesh. Eating it, that is.

It around this time that Last Rites unfortunately fall apart. In the last thirty minutes, the whole political subtext is done away with in favor of a bizarre, unfitting zombie cult plot that is jarring and for the most part makes no sense. You get the feeling that this was tacked on to pad out the running time in a way, because it just doesn’t fit in with the rest of the film.

But even with that lone caveat, Last Rites is worth it for the first hour. The actors are top notch, especially the aforementioned Ramsden and, as the leader of the paramilitary faction, Christa McNamee, who’s character is probably the most despicable, evil bitch since that one British guy in Mel Gibson’s The Patriot. I have sincerely not hated a character more since that movie. Which is weird, I know.

Last Rites of the Dead is a real-life horror-show where the zombies are the least of your worries, which, in a world filled with zombies, is a scary idea indeed.

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