Dead Set

Four words: Best. Eviction. Episode. Ever. The only thing that could have made it even more delicious? Zombie Chenbot.

Vulgar and noisy, and often disgustingly hilarious, Dead Set is the perfect pop-culture poison for those of us convinced the world of Big Brother and its spawn is an endless night of the living dead, turning participants and fans alike into craven zombies.

On balance it plays like a well-made and increasingly grim horror picture, with a crispness of execution and a graphic level of intestine-pulling, throat-ripping violence that are both beyond the American norm.

I was surprised at how much adrenalized horror there is to be found in the story, as it races forward into bloody human-zombie battles and scary entrapments. This isn't a wink-winkfest so much as a sly screamfest, with lots of post-apocalyptic misery and carnage afoot.

Dead Set is less remarkable, because this import from the U.K. is more typical of the genre and gets campy, although it will scare the bejeebers out of you.

For all its gore, Dead Set has a frightening lack of suspense. Then again, except for Kelly (Jaime Winstone), a "Big Brother" producer with a dysfunctional love life, most of the characters are so lacking in humanity that the transition to zombie isn't much of a leap.