The Dead One

First off this film has yet to be seen in any theater because the Los Angeles VIP premier was but a few days ago. This movie(YES I actually did see this) was utterly excellent because it was a thriller and a comic crossover. This was such a refreshing movie because every "Scary" scene was not gore and random CGI filling the screen until your absolutely disgusted. No, this retraced the steps of all great horror scenes: the music, the absence of gore that makes your own imagination so much more terrifying and vivid than anything that could be portrayed visually, and having an all star cast like: Tony Plana and Billy Drago! Though this film is a comic-to-movie film, it lacked the major budget that most of these types of films have. This movie does pace slow but it is visually stunning... that is not filled with random flying body parts, but with actual plot and suspense. Even without this movie being filled with blood, gore, and CGI it still made half of the audience jump at the premier!!!

1st watched 11/26/2014 – 4 out of 10(Dir-Brian Cox): Slow starting comic book adaptation stars Wilmer Valderrama(from TV's "That 70's Show") as a young man chosen to bring back an old Aztec religion and ends up turning into a healing superhero-like deceased man after his vehicle collides with a tree bringing his demise and bringing his spirit into the current world 1 year later. Valderrama's character is promising by the end of the movie, but unfortunately it takes that long to see the potential and then the movie is over. The film starts with an elderly man dying and presenting to the young version of the main character the fact that he expects him to be the one to bring back the old time religion. There is a lot of hokeyness to this premise explaining that the Aztecs were killed off and will supposedly return to prominence in the future after three days of rain while the sun is shining. During Valderrama's ghostlike return to the world he begins hearing weird voices in his head and starts healing others despite the negative voices wanting him to kill those who might stop the inevitable from happening(the current priests). So what we have is kind of a spirit-world bad vs. evil going on. Valderrama is fine in this character but the timidness early on kind of makes the movie boring. The evil spirit then starts killing the priests initially thru Valderrama's character and then takes over an elderly woman and a confrontation occurs late in the movie. The confrontation is interesting which makes you think there could be an interesting follow-up movie but I don't think this is going to happen. The movie is un-eventful although not horrible, but isn't well made enough for anyone to take notice. I liked seeing Valderrama breaking out of his comedic sissy-like character to tackle a fuller character and he did well considering the lack of depth he was given. This fair at best movie will probably not give him too many other opportunities, unfortunately.

I am not familiar with the comic book this movie was based on but it seemed like a decent adaptation.I just stumbled across it at the DVD rental store and knew nothing about it.It has an interesting mythology and the actors all performed well and were convincing.I especially loved Zac's reaction when Diego came back from the dead and how no one believed him or took him seriously. I loved the outfit (or costume) Wilmer Valderrama (Diego) wore in the movie. It's dark & stylish and good for any occasion.I would love to wear something like that. The movie didn't really seem to end so i'm not sure whether sequels are planned,or if it is a pilot for a new series. Either way I liked it and the effects were good.The cinematography was nice and I liked how it was effective without gore and bad CGI effects. I look forward to seeing more movies about these character's if any more are planned and would like to read the comic now also.

Okay... I get the similarities to "The Crow" and the fact that it's supposed to be a comic book adaptation, and I understand that even "Fez" needs to work these days, but come on... This is the best they could come up with? It's just plain... Silly. I guess our economic frenzy has hit Hollywood just as hard, because it's sad to see great character actors like: Michael Parks, Billy Drago and Maria Alonso reduced to this pathetic piece of garbage. It amazes me, that something this bad could make it onto cable pay channels, let alone directly after the wonderful "Masters of Horror". This belongs hidden from plain site, on the back shelf of a family owned video store, and covered with dust from lack of rental. It sounds harsh, but producers need to understand this, and quit insulting our intelligence. I'll give it a 2 for above average acting and cinematography, but that's it. This is a train wreck from the get go, and doesn't deserve to be aired on something we have to pay for on a monthly basis.

People have been trashing this film, so instead of doing a standard review I'm just going to write a brief defense of this film. Was it incredibly awesome? No. I mean, it didn't have a lot of action or gore or beautiful women or anything that would normally make a horror film decent, but I don't think this was intended as a horror film.

Wilmer Valderrama ("That 70s Show") leads this film and does a fine job. I was never excited with him from TV, playing the part of either a naive foreigner or a trash-talking hoodlum. But here, he plays it pretty straight, just being one of the guys who happens to have a very bad thing happen to him (at least, I consider it bad if some Aztec god wants you to kill your girlfriend). There's a little bit of Mexican stereotype in here, but nothing blatantly racist.

The opening credits had scenes from what I assume is the comic book, or a close approximation. I have never read it, sadly (and in fact never even heard of it until now). Sometimes animation works, sometimes it doesn't ("Hood of Horror"). I liked it here, it seemed very natural -- even better than "Creepshow" in this regard.

I think the biggest problem people have with this film is the focus on a story rather than action and the overtly Mexican tones to the story, which few can identify with. I didn't really have an issue with it. With such notable guest stars as Billy Drago, it was easy to be entertained by this film. Oh well, you can't please everybody.

Now, I'm not suggesting you run out and rent this one right away. It's still not an exciting film. It's bland and little happens. So it doesn't deserve a high rating. But it does deserve better than what some people have been giving it, simply because I can point you to many, many worse films than this if you really want to know what awful is. "The Dead One" is a forgettable film, forgettable because it's neither too good or too bad to be noteworthy. It's the Goldilocks of Mexican super hero films.