Night Life, a campy horror zombie movie from 1989 on DVD

Night Life (1989), the horror-comedy directed by David Acomba, it stars Scott Grimes, John Astin, Cheryl Pollak, and Anne Ramsey.

Night Life — Description

The movie follows Archie, a shy teenage boy who works at his family's funeral home in a small town. His life is already awkward enough, but things get much stranger when a power outage and electrical accident bring several corpses back to life.

The newly resurrected dead aren't exactly traditional zombies. They retain some personality and become increasingly troublesome as Archie tries to keep their existence secret. Before long, the town is caught up in a bizarre outbreak of reanimated corpses, while Archie and his friends attempt to figure out how to stop them.

Unlike a grim zombie movie, Night Life has a deliberately campy, comedic tone, mixing teen comedy, romance, gross-out zombie effects, and horror. The funeral-home setting gives it plenty of opportunities for dark humor, while the undead gradually become more dangerous.

It's very much an 1980s horror-comedy rather than a straight slasher—think quirky characters, practical makeup effects, goofy situations, and a supernatural premise played for laughs.

In Color, All NTSC, 4:3 aspect ratio, 1989, 92 minutes, Dolby Digital