THE NEWLYDEADS - Fawlty Towers might not look all that great set against today's socially attuned media landscape, but at least you could never peg Basil as a transphobic murderer. The same can't be said for Lloyd, moustachioed hotelier of 'The Newlydeads', whose misfiring fumble leads to him stabbing a drag queen. One of the many strange features of 'The Newlydeads' is that it seems to be suggesting that we in some way get behind Lloyd, who spends the rest of the film in a slightly heroic role, doing his best to uphold that shopworn but classic genre trope of 'put-upon hotel owner versus undead being in bridal drag'. Yep, it seems Lloyd's victim is back from the dead with a lust for vengeance and a repertoire of gravel-voiced Freddie-isms, setting the stage for the kind of epic struggle that takes place in Travel Lodges nationwide. A late eighties piece of SOV tat that aspires to black comedy, 'The Newlydeads', as I'm sure you've guessed, isn't interested in suspense, human drama or the damage wrought by a lifetime in hospitality. It doesn't even find room for that much horror - scenes roll along with an air of sunny disconnection, and you clock well before halfway that it's never going to reach the place where it all adds up. But if you like flat-falling wit, constant nonsequitors and a ghoul in a veil's shitty one-liners, all in lovely VHS, then you might want to check in.
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