In some quarters of Miami, the talk movie of the moment is not the American remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but the crude and bloody Cuban horror film Juan de los Muertos (Juan of the Dead), a story about the day Havana wakes up to an invasion of the living dead.

Considered a blatant spoof on the aging ruling class of Cuba, the film debuted at the Havana Film Festival last week, and instantly became the hottest ticket in town as Cubans flocked to see the dreariness and absurdity of their lives portrayed on film through the deeds and dialogues of invading zombies, The Walking Dead style.

On Spanish-language television in South Florida, viewers could see extensive coverage of the crowds, not the well-heeled but ordinary people jostling to get into the theater with such eagerness they made the Black Friday mobs at Best Buy seem normal. Word is police had to intervene, but that’s not news in Havana, where the state regularly listens to your phone calls.

“I am also a little zombie, a live corpse who survived the Special Period without turning crazy….” tweeted Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez during the film festival.

An only-in-Cuba kind of phenomenon, the film might soon become one in Miami as well: Sources tell me that Juan de los Muertos is being considered for a gala showing at the upcoming Miami International Film Festival in March.

“In another country, this kind of film might not be so important, but in Cuba, it’s everything,” says critic Alejandro Ríos, who dissects Cuban film at 8 p.m. Sundays on his Américatevé Channel 41 show La mirada indiscreta (The Indiscreet Look).

The Cuban press and television are government-controlled, as is the Cuban Film Institute, but filmmakers have for decades found a way to levy criticism at the government and to mark the deteriorating physical and moral landscape of the island on films made in partnership with Spanish producers.

“Everything is said in film,” Ríos says.

Trailers in YouTube hint at the reason for the furor: This film is a Bronx cheer on behalf of the Cuban people to the anachronistic leaders of a Socialist/Communist/Fidelista (whatever) state, and it’s really, really funny in a strange way.

The movie is the work of young Cuban filmmakers and actors. According to the trailers, it was written and directed by Alejandro Brugués, produced by Gervasio Iglesias, Inti Herrera and Claudia Calviño, and stars Alexis Díaz de Villegas, Jorge Molina, Jazz Vilá, and Andros Perugorría.

“50 years after the Cuban Revolution, a new revolution is about to begin…” teases the trailer as the screen is splattered with blood and attacking zombies start to appear.

Those who have seen it say the film begins when Juan and Sara leave their decrepit apartment building to find people with blank expressions roving aimlessly city streets.

Sara doesn’t notice anything special about the zombies.

“It all looks the same to me,” she says.

But watch out...they’re here!

And from there, it’s one risqué and raunchy scene after another.

American media reports say Cubans laugh their hearts out at the zombies.

It’s easy to suspect that a military fatigue-clad old zombie is supposed to be Fidel Castro.

“It’s a way for Cubans to unburden themselves of their woes,” Ríos says. “In a democracy, there’s access to so many versions of reality that film is not as indispensable as it is in Cuba.”

And the film is a throwback to an old genre.

“Who cares anymore about zombies?” he adds, laughing. “The Socialist bastion!”

Just don’t expect, as some American press reports indicate, that the making of this film indicates any kind of opening or significant change on the island.

Cuban filmmakers have been making critical films for decades: Strawberry & Chocolate, which dealt with the revolution’s attitudes toward homosexuality; and the Alice in Wonderland satire Alicia en el país de las maravillas, among others that have broken with state-imposed taboos.

And now here come the zombies....

Welcome to Miami.