Some films arrive in theaters like a loud drunk at a wedding reception: they mean well, but they keep knocking over the cake. My Boyfriend’s Back (1993) is one such inebriated party crasher—a zombie rom-com that wants to be equal parts sweet, scary, and satirical, but ends up shuffling aimlessly between genres like an extra from Night of the Living Deadwho took a wrong turn into a John Hughes movie.
The one thing that saves this cinematic corpse from rotting away entirely is the beauty and charm of Traci Lind. She glows through the gloom like a candle in a haunted house—flickering, but still warm enough to make you stay in the room.
The Premise, Such As It Is
The plot reads like it was scribbled on the bathroom stall in a cemetery and never revised. Johnny Dingle (Andrew Lowery) has loved Missy McCloud (Lind) since childhood. On the eve of his high school prom, he stages a fake robbery to impress her, but a real crook shows up and kills him. Instead of staying six feet under, Johnny returns from the grave to claim his date. Cue ninety minutes of fish-out-of-water slapstick, tepid horror gags, and romantic declarations delivered between rotting flesh jokes.
It’s a premise with possibilities—teenage awkwardness meets supernatural absurdity—but the execution is as clumsy as a zombie in roller skates. Director Bob Balaban never quite decides whether he’s making a parody, a genuine teen romance, or a Saturday morning cartoon. The result is a tonal buffet in which nothing quite satisfies.
Traci Lind: The Last Flower in the Graveyard
Then there’s Traci Lind. With her clear eyes, porcelain skin, and a smile that could probably stop a funeral procession, she elevates every scene she’s in. As Missy, she manages to make lines like, “I don’t care if you’re dead, Johnny,” sound almost believable. She radiates sincerity in a film that often feels like it’s being held together with Bubble Yum and wishful thinking.
In the middle of the script’s corny jokes and cheap effects, Lind is a throwback to the kind of leading lady you’d expect in a 1940s screwball comedy—classy, witty, and seemingly unbothered by the fact that her prom date is decomposing before her eyes. Without her, the whole enterprise collapses into pure gimmickry. With her, you at least have a reason to keep watching.
The Supporting Cast: Ghosts of Careers Past and Future
The rest of the cast is a mixed bag of “Wait, was that…?” moments. You’ve got Edward Herrmann and Mary Beth Hurt gamely playing Johnny’s parents, clearly wondering between takes what they did in a previous life to deserve this. A young Philip Seymour Hoffman, credited here as “Philip Hoffman,” shows up in an early role, as does Matthew Fox before Party of Five and Matthew McConaughey.
These small flashes of future stardom are buried under broad, sitcom-level performances and sight gags that wouldn’t make it past the first draft of a Saved by the Bell Halloween special. Even the normally scene-stealing Cloris Leachman can’t do much as a kooky zombie widow, though she does her best to chew the scenery (and nearly the props).
A Director Without a Compass
Balaban’s pacing is awkward, the tone wobbles between PG-rated goofiness and a half-hearted stab at horror, and the humor lands about as often as a blindfolded dart throw. There are moments when you sense the movie wants to be a sharp satire of small-town values and high school hierarchies—but then it cuts to a pratfall or a recycled zombie gag, and the idea evaporates.
This is the cinematic equivalent of someone trying to tell a joke while constantly interrupting themselves to explain the punchline.
The Darkly Funny Bits That (Almost) Work
And yet, despite the mess, there are moments of strange charm. The ending gag—Johnny wistfully wishing he’d eaten the high school bully—is as close to genuine wit as the script gets. Some of the slapstick involving Johnny’s slow physical decay is mildly amusing, particularly when it’s played against Lind’s deadpan reactions.
There’s also an oddly sweet undercurrent to Johnny’s devotion, even if the film never explores it with much depth. This could have been a zombie version of Say Anything, but instead it settles for being the horror-comedy equivalent of a novelty air freshener: cute for a few minutes, then just taking up space.
Production Values: Dollar Store Halloween
Visually, the film looks exactly like what it is—a low-budget studio project rushed into production to cash in on a gimmick. The zombie makeup ranges from passable to “did the intern forget to finish this?” and the set pieces feel like they were built for a TV pilot that never aired. The Texas locations offer some charm, but the film’s world never feels lived-in; it’s all too clean, too staged, too self-conscious.
Even the soundtrack feels lazy. The title references the 1963 hit by The Angels, but the song itself doesn’t make it into the film—an omission that’s both baffling and symbolic of the missed opportunities throughout.
A Second Life on VHS
Where My Boyfriend’s Back truly found its audience wasn’t in theaters, but on VHS and late-night cable. In that setting, the film’s awkward tone and uneven humor became part of its cult appeal. It’s the kind of thing you’d stumble on at 1 a.m., keep watching out of morbid curiosity, and then spend the next day quoting ironically with friends.
In that context, Traci Lind’s presence becomes even more important—she’s the one element that feels timeless, the one part you wouldn’t fast-forward through. If you were a teenage genre fan in this time period you remember her from Fright Night 2 as well.
Final Verdict: Beauty Amid the Rot
At the end of the day, My Boyfriend’s Back is a deeply flawed film, but it’s not entirely without charm. Think of it as an old Halloween decoration you keep in the attic—not because it’s beautiful, but because it reminds you of something you can’t quite let go of.
For me, that something is Traci Lind. She’s the rose growing out of this cinematic compost heap, the reason to sit through the bad jokes and limp set pieces. Without her, this would be a half-forgotten footnote in the annals of Touchstone Pictures’ misfires. With her, it’s at least worth a look—if only to be reminded that sometimes, in the middle of the graveyard, you can still find a little life.
