Shadow: Dead Riot

This movie's trailer stood out. The movie delievered. This is not a typical zombie flick. The action scenes deliver way before the 1st undead lurches onto the screen. The lead Solitaire has a quiet intensity that carries the mood. She delivers just before the edge of cliche. It is a crime why she had not accelerated to that of a higher budget star. Hollywood still has a way to go. Worth a Friday night and popcorn.

Or even D-movie? I like me a really low-to-no budget movie from time to time. Because they don't take themselves serious. This is the case here too, but still I couldn't enjoy the movie. Yes I knew the budget was tight and that there would not be so much money at hand, but seeing they could hire a martial Arts expert, for the fight scenes, makes you wonder why they didn't also spend money on a funnier script (w/o every cliché in the book)!

Although the tone of the movie is not to be serious, the main actress does take her job a bit too seriously, which contradicts the whole thing and feels stupid. So while there is one or two original things here, the overall feeling, for me was "boring"!

If you're looking for a halfway decent women-in-prison film, look elsewhere. This one isn't campy-fun, it's campy-boring. What really irritates me is that some of the casting is excellent, with Margaret Baker just right as a predatory lesbian guard looking to enjoy the bodies of pretty female inmates like Misty Mundae and Ruby Larocca. But aside from some brief conversation, nothing remotely kinky or erotic ever happens! It's a waste of perfectly good female talent! And if you're not going to have at least one good girl/girl moment then WHY bother with a women-in-prison setting in the first place? The silly zombie plot would have been far more palatable had more attention been paid to the pretty girls-with-other-girls behind bars!

This movie incorporated at least 3 genres:women's prison,oriental action, and ghoulish horror. In that respect, it was an adventurous 90 minutes! While Tony was his usual imposing self, the guy playing Dr. Swann struck some realistic chords. He let his motivation for power and sex come through slowly and built up to the final climax.Given the ambitious nature of the film, the cast did the best job they could with minimal dialogue and tough action sequences. Speaking of the action, it was done in a way familiar to those who know Asian action films -- fast, violent, and well interspersed throughout the film. Carla Green looked great in a demanding physical role and I'd love to see more of her! As in many of these kinds of movies, maybe they tried to please too many people, but I'd love to see a sequel

Derek Wan deserves a tip of the proverbial hat. Whilst other directors only managed to create dreck as bad as this only during the past few years, he succeeded in putting this steaming pile together almost a decade and a half ago - surely a visionary act!

It's got everything you'd expect of a 2019/2020 creation... A $2.50 crystal microphone used for the sound... Shot using a $200 digital camera with plastic lens... Special effects from the requisite great-aunt's make-up case... Script written by a stoner with a severe case of the "munchies..." And a cast made up of the "wanna-bes" who didn't even manage to catch the bus to get to a real talent agency.

It should come as no surprise that Misty Mundae was in this (in this case using her alternative stage name of Erin Brown) - not that she's incredibly bad (she was actually one of the better performers, which in itself says a lot), but because she always seems to be involved with "WTF were they thinking" movies.

I can imagine this would be a very watchable movie for 13-14 year old boys, owing to its incessant gratuitous nudity and very pathetic (even for a daytime soap opera) sex scenes - or maybe for a late-teen stoner - but anyone with even a slightly functional grey matter will be reaching for the remote within minutes of the start.

Steer clear if you value your time and sanity.