The Dead Next Door

This is a clever and pretty straight foreword zombie flick shot on 8mm (think of the first evil dead). J.R. Bookwalter was able to create a gory and entertaining zombie flick with a relative low-budget and local actors. Unlike hack job Todd Sheets (see Zombie Bloodbath trilogy), Bookwalter created a zombie film that gives you everything you want...Heaps of low-budget gore, a satanic occult, the "zombie squad", an unresolved ending, "Evil Dead" references, and Bruce Campbell dubbing over the main actors role(?). The Dead Next Door's video quality is somewhat poor, but looks like the first "Evil Dead" basically. Kinda grainy and low-budget, but not unwatchable like "Zombie Bloodbath". Many of the characters are named after horror directors or writers and there are some pretty cheesy dialog scenes. But overall, the movie works and keeps you satisfied due to the gore and somewhat innovative scenarios. This is an odd little zombie flick that is clever and interesting. Sam Raimi backed the film and later disowned it having his named removed from the credits. I have no reason why he would do that, considering it's pretty cool and as entertaining as the first "evil dead". The "making of" on the DVD is good and the commentary is worth listening too.

I really enjoyed this film. I watched it once or twice before I hit the special features and watched the featurettes with interviews from the cast and crew. I think those interviews really helped me appreciate this film more. The director had no budget and no idea how to really operate a camera (it seems the first time they shot a lot of the effects and various scenes, the light meter was trusted less than the untrained eye, and many shots came out so dark that they were unusable). With some creative and sometimes silly, schlocky ideas for gore and effects and an interesting, even compelling follow-up to both Romero's Dead films (the original three which had been released by that time) and Sam Raimi's Evil Dead I and II, I really think this film had some interesting points to it. There are no incredible special effects, the acting is silly (the main character's voice has now been replaced with Bruce Campbell's), the budget was extremely low (though it was funded by a "Mr. X," who kept his identity a secret... do a little research on that one, the answer is surprising), and I think they made something campy, fun, and even, at times, creepy. I liked it a lot for a no-budget midnight flick.

Yeah just like the title of my review if you a hardcore zombie lover tired of mainstream stuff you can watch this movie to see some cool looking zombie and gore for the sake of gore.The story is not that bad it have a interesting look on zombie but because the poor written it come out very dull and stupid at time.The nice low budget feel and the practical effect is really good is all plus point i can give for this movie.Btw you can watch the movie for free on Youtube so no need to find a copy

If you love zombie comedies I dare to say that The Dead Next Door belongs on your menu - it got the right spirit, some of the zombies and gore effects are done well and there are some funny moments and ideas too. So what you can expect? A fine entertaining low budget zombie flick once done right. Recommended to the lover of the genre.

Back in the early to mid 1980s, word spread around horror fandom that an enterprising young filmmaker was putting together a low budget but ambitious zombie film in Ohio. Monetary setbacks kept the film from being completed for years but it finally saw the light of day on video late in the decade. The film that many thought would be another cult masterpeice like Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Basket Case turned out to be a truly pathetic time waster that proves that anyone, no matter how untalented can make a movie and waste the veiwer's time. Yes, the film is quite ambitious but that means nothing if the filmmaker has no talent and Bookwalter has no talent in spades. The film seems to be a case of two ideas getting mashed together, the zombie plague and the Guyana like cult. But neither idea is very well meshed into the other and the result proved not to be worth the wait. Watch it for it's decent makeup effects. That's all that can really be praised. JR Bookwalter was once thought of as a great white hope who might put some gusto back into low budget genre films. How wrong we were.