Dead Squad: Temple of the Undead

I dont know where to start with this.... just dont bother

terrible acting, terrible set, terrible costumes, terrible effects

I started watching this and within 5mins I know it was a lemon,, within 15 i was cringing.... turned it off after 30.

Every now and then, I like to watch a randomly selected horror movie knowing absolutely nothing about it; most of the time, these 'blind watches' turn out to be junk, but occasionally I find a hidden gem, or at least a film that is dumb fun. Dead Squad is one such film: it's not a great film per se, but it is highly entertaining--a deliberately cheesy piece of schlock that delivers those staples of the genre, excessive gore and gratuitous nudity.

The directorial debut of movie musician Dominik Hauser, Dead Squad: Temple of the Dead (to give it it's full title) follows a group of backpackers who stray off the beaten path and discover an ancient temple where they decide to seek shelter for the night, unaware that the ruins are home to mutated flesh-eating zombie monsters, created by a Nazi scientist working for the C.I.A.

Hauser lays on the cheeze and the splatter from the word go, with a prologue set in 1958 that sees a man having his face pulled off. The action then moves to present day, but the craziness continues throughout, the bloody mayhem including an exploding stomach, mutant/zombie impalement, a jawbone ripped off, gut-munching, decapitation, and the hilarious sight of one of the backpackers having his skull pulled out of his abdomen! Busty Bianca Zouppas as sexy sightseer Tiffany provides most of the nudity, although a couple of female zombies also get flash their boobs. There's also a zombie-on-zombie blow-job and a dwarf zombie with his head buried in a female zombie's crotch!

The plot is formulaic, the acting is fairly diabolical, and the film has some of the worst scene transitions imaginable, but the plentiful blood and guts, the nekkidness, and some surprisingly effective set design all go to make Dead Squad an enjoyable time-waster--one of those rare times when taking pot luck actually payed off.

6.5/10 for the gore, rounded up to 7 for the flesh-eating dwarf (I'm a sucker for a horror film with a dwarf, even more-so if the little fellow is a zombie).

It's not good. It's not funny bad. It's that middle of the road, generic zombie, movie thar you will forger about as you watch it.

Nothing it good. I love bad horror movies, and there was nothing for me here.

Did kind of enjoy the fact that they ADRed 2 or 3 of the teens to hide their british/audtrailan/new Zealand accents and try to pretend like this movie is set in North America??? Seems more likely that it is set in south America judging by the jungle and Mayanesque temple. This movie establishes nothing.

Didn't even know the two scrawny dork boys were brothers until about 30 minutes in.

Lazy production. Do not give them money.

Judged against "Silence of the Lambs," this would be terrible, but that's not what it's about. It's a campy, over-the-top zombie romp with ultra-gory kill scenes, some bad acting, some surprisingly good comedy acting and directing, a default B movie plot, and a bizarrely "human" society of zombies. I saw one of the people who gave this a rating of 1 turned it off after 30 minutes, and I get that: the stuff that makes this worth watching kicks in halfway through. If you don't like camp or horror-comedy, skip it. If you do, well worth watching.

Short and sweet. No synopsis or spoilers.

Dead Squad is the epitome, the height, the very definition of zombie b-flick cheese. Super campy with tons of b-flick blood & gore, and a script straight out of the sewer.

There is NOTHING about Dead Squad that makes it worthy of being called a film. A movie? I guess technically, but it's really more of a flick. That doesn't mean it's without its merits or wasn't worthy of watch, 'cause it totally was!

Some quick notes:

• The sets are pretty darn good! Considering this is low budget schmaltz, they're REALLY good. The majority of the movie takes place in these underground bunkers beneath an old temple in the rainforest, and the entire time I was watching I kept telling myself that it is remeniscent of the old TV show 'Land Of the Lost' - not the show, but the Sleestack lair. You know...those killer reptile humanoids that walked around hissing? Yep...that's what the bunker beneath the temple reminds me of, and it looks really cool.
• The direction and writing was actually quite solid. Any zombie movie that invokes empathy toward a zombie is clever. Crazy & kookie, but clever. The acting was EXACTLY what you would expect from a cheesy b-flick zombie movie with lots of over-the-top, wooden dialog, although the lead (her name escapes me, but she is a young black girl who happens to be some kind of martial arts guru) did a pretty convincing job. Everything else was exactly what you wokld expect from a cheesy zombie flick.

Now, a few notes on parental content:

• PROFANITY: Yeh, there's some, but not a ton. Just a few places here and there.
• INTENSE/SCARY SCENES: Come on...it's a cheesy zombie b-flick.
• NUDITY/SEXUAL SITUATIONS: Now we're getting somewhere. While it's not loaded with hardcore nudity, there are the token b-flick "boob shots" several times, along with some scantily clad women (and zombies) and a few scenes of a sexual nature. Beyond the token few, however, it's not sex overload, or rampant through the film.

-VIOLENCE/GORE: This is the fun part. There is a fairly significant amount of blood and gore during the last 2/3 of the film...maybe closer to the last 1/2. While the fx were actually pretty decent for a super-camp production, there was nothing so disgustingly gross that would make a horror fan cringe, as it's hard to get a queesy stomach when you're laughing. But in all seriousness, people looking for gore should have their boats floated with this, and it looks pretty good.

All in all, this is a fun little romp. It's a little slow in a couple of places, but that doesn't last too long. If you like zombies and you like camp, with a bit of gore and a couple of boobs, this'll be right up your alley.