My Boyfriends Back (1993 film)

Plot

Eager to impress his crush, Johnny Dingle arranges a fake robbery in the store where Missy McCloud works. Dingle intends to foil the robbery and save McCloud. The plan backfires, and Dingle is shot. As he lies dying in the store, he asks her to the prom, and McCloud agrees. After his funeral, Dingle inexplicably returns as a zombie and attempts to reintegrate into society. Though he faces anti-zombie discrimination, Dingle is allowed back in school, where he eats a bully. McCloud, though reluctant to follow through with her promise, eventually agrees to attend the prom with Dingle. As McCloud slowly falls for him, Dingle wrestles with his urge to cannibalize McCloud. Dingle eventually overcomes his urges and takes McCloud to the prom, where he finally decays to point of destruction. As he goes to heaven, Dingle learns that a mishap in heaven was the cause for his return as a zombie. Because he was never meant to die, he is sent back to Earth and given a second chance at life. Dingle again sacrifices himself for McCloud during the robbery, but his life is spared when the bullet is deflected by a locket he bought as gift for McCloud. McCloud, overcome by his sacrifice and the gift of the locket, agrees to attend the prom with him.

Cast

Themes

Academic Peter Dendle identifies the themes of the film as being standard teen film tropes. Dingle's urges to eat his date are a metaphor for teenage sexual activity, and his fear of decomposition is teenage anxiety over acne. As a zombie, Dingle is discriminated against and ostracized, which is meant to show zombies as outsiders.

Casting

This is the first film role for Matthew Fox and Matthew McConaughey. Renée Zellweger's only scene was cut from the film.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 14% of 21 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating was 2.9/10. Variety called it "an idiotic offbeat comedy" that "repeats ideas and jokes more effectively used in his 1989 Parents." Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote, "If My Boyfriend's Back is an irredeemably silly movie, it has an engaging lightness of tone and uniformly impeccable performances by a cast that maintains just the right attitude of deadpan parody." Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called it "an awful teen horror comedy". Thomas wrote that "has a disastrous tone of sunny sitcom jauntiness" when it should have focused on dark satire. Mark Caro of the Chicago Tribune wrote, "The movie is full of nonsensical plot twists, embarrassingly broad performances and unappealing characters." Caro criticized the casting of Lowery, calling his character "perhaps the least interesting movie zombie ever". Jeff Shannon of the Seattle Times wrote, "Simply put, absolutely none of it works. The movie utterly fails to set a foundation for its dark fantasy, effectively turning every character into a moron." Ty Burr of Entertainment Weekly rated it "D" and compared it negatively to Heathers. Dendle called it the best of the zombie romantic comedy films of the late 1980s and early 1990s but criticized its use of family-friendly themes as "cheesy" and "saccharine".