The Alien Dead

Here's another 80's gem from the king of cheese director Fred Olen Ray, in which one suspects the most costly item in its production was having the artwork made for its rental box. A meteor strikes a house boat deep in the swamp killing everyone aboard, but soon thereafter they come back to "life" as poorly made-up living corpses to munch on the living, whom for the most part just stand there and let them do it.

The script, editing, acting and makeup effects are breath taking in how awful they are, yet its way too long and tedious to be unintentionally funny, life is too short to waste it watching a film like this. Only note worthy thing is that former "Flash Gordon" Buster Crabbe almost ended his career like a dying scream doing this one, fortunately it can at least be said that this wasn't his last film.

1 out of 10, even fans of movies like "Plan 9 from Outer Space" will be appalled by this one, avoid it at all costs.

The Alien Dead is another strong candidate for "worst movie EVER." Fred Olen Ray is, without a doubt, the worst director working today. I can't believe this guy is still making movies. This is one of his first genre offerings and a terrible, terrible movie. Where to begin? The lighting, or lack thereof, is an appropriate starting point I suppose. You can't see anything that's going on in this flick. It's awful. The lighting guy (assuming there was one) should be shot. Next stop: inane dialogue. What in the hell was up with the brainless dialogue and the delivery of said brainless dialogue? It's pathetic at best. And the music...nevermind. Just stay away from this one. I am now dumber after witnessing the dreaded terror of the Alien Dead.

Following in the footsteps of H.G. Lewis....following WAY BEHIND, comes Fred Olen Way with Alien Dead. This movie highlights the dangers of houseboating in Florida and shows people once and for all that people hit by metorites really do turn into zombies. Filmed locally here in Oviedo Florida and Rock Springs State Park now called Kelly State Park, Alien Dead illustrates the passive nature of Floridians in how they never run when being attacked by the undead... They just make the horrible face, scream and gently fall on the ground while the zombies chew them up for dinner.

One might think that the horrible plot, video, sound, acting, lighting, etc. is strange enough, but what's even stranger is that half the movie shows people actually swimming in Florida water...something we locals haven't done for decades.

This movie is destined to make the Something Awful Video lineup one day. Let us hope it happens before this wonderfully awful movie fades away into the sunset.

Interestingly enough, the movie does have a big name, Buster Crabbe. Yes, the same Buster Crabbe from the Buck Roger's fame, playing the local sheriff who is followed around by his dorky deputy sidekick.

And if the ending leaves you saying anything other than, "What the hell just happened?" then either you fell asleep, or worse...you actually did understand it.

Ron Jaffe Orlando, Florida

I always heard that this was the absolute worst zombie movie of all time, but I'd much rather watch this than Zombie Nightmare, Revenge of the Dead, or Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things... definitely. You could do a lot worse than watching this movie, which actually has some pretty fun moments. I mean, people that this film was made for will probably find it appealing no matter what anyone says about it; anyone that is looking for a serious horror movie in here probably doesn't realize that the title of the movie is "ALIEN DEAD", which makes ME laugh quite a bit. Eh.

This film, which was made for $12,000 (and they used every penny of it), is about a meteor crashing and turning rednecks into zombies. The film suffers from a really grainy look and features horrible sound (which may have been cleaned up for the recent DVD release.. whoopty doo). The editing is quite awful; there are a few times when they cut to another scene while someone is talking (kind of like near the end of Invasion of the Blood Farmers when the cop is talking and picks up the phone and says "F..." and then it cuts to a scene of a guy driving -- what?!).

The story is terrible, the "effects" are terrible. A person will get killed, but the camera cuts away really quickly and then shows the aftermath of blood being in a big hole in a woman's chest. Or another woman will get stabbed with a pitchfork, but you won't see it actually enter the woman -- you'll just see the pitchfork sticking out of her back. It's quite laughably bad, but at least they tried to give some gore, with some of the zombies chomping on entrails. The musical score is cheesy but good; however, they actually use real country songs to add "ambience" to the redneck surroundings, which is hilariously awful.

When it was over, I can safely say I wasn't bored and I distinctly remember enjoying myself throughout the whole thing. However, it's kind of hard to write a really detailed review for this, as this flick is pretty much unmemorable when it's all said and done.

I saw this in Sun Coast, billed as the 25th Anniversary Edition. I saw Buster Crabbe's name and thought, "How bad can it be?". It is hilariously bad. My buddy who is a cono...conisue...knows a lot about zombie movies laughed just when it was supposed to be "serious". Good grade Z stuff. I sent Fred Olen Ray a thank you email. The DVD is worth it for the picture of Miss Kim in the website space in the special features. The guy that plays the idiotic deputy said in the interview(!) that he ended up with 300k. Not too shabby considering this movie only cost 12k. The chick on the cover looks kind of like Linda Blair from The Exorcist. Some nice looking babes in this, with some half decent t&a. Good for fans of low grade horror and I know you are out there.