Deadlands: The Rising

Let me start by saying this: if you liked this movie, good for you but please don't think that I don't "get it" simply because I didn't like it. No...I get it, and it still sucks out loud.

This film is a rarity for me. It actually made me angry that I sat through all of it. Most bad horror movies I can simply shrug off with a simple "man, that was terrible", but not this one. Even accompanied by a liberal amount of alcohol and a very healthy suspension of disbelief I still think this is truly just an awful movie. Why? Numerous reasons.

First of all, giving some "actors" some white grease paint for their faces and black around the eyes doesn't make a zombie. I realize you do what you can on a small budget, but if your zombies look like they're straight off of a Misfits album cover, just stop there. Hell, leave their faces alone and just smear fake blood on them. Trust me, it's a better effect. And that little disclaimer at the beginning of the film with something about the movie being violent and disturbing...get rid of that. Nobody likes a liar. The only person who would find this disturbing is *maybe* an 8 year old...but kids are so screwed up today even that's a stretch.

Then there's the script, acting, and direction. All well below par for any movie, indie or not. The actors throughout the entire film looked like someone with a shy bladder thinking "don't watch me! I can't do it when you watch me!". I imagine they may have been half way convincing off screen, but as soon as someone said action they just froze and delivered some of the most mundane, bland dialogue I have ever seen. The story was equally flawed...leaving much of the background information out of the film. I suppose I could knock the production values and minor technical crap like that, but it's an indie movie after all and you make do with what you can afford.

The pluses to this movie? It's only 60 minutes long so your suffering will be limited. And...well...that's about it. If you really want to watch a bad zombie movie that's at least funny bad, go watch Death Metal Zombies. Skip this junk.

The video and audio quality is sub-par. To me, it felt like a home video reminiscent of something you'd see taken at the relatives place on Thanksgiving Day.

The acting is amateurish, forced, and seemingly barely rehearsed. The screenplay/dialog is poorly written.

You just know a movie is going to blow when 50% of the opening credits go to special FX techs, the dude who cast "extras" for zombies, and the writer/director/editor is credited with about a half of a dozen other billets.

Usually, I'd say that a movie this horrible is worth watching for the simple entertainment of pointing and laughing at how bad it is... but the whole thing from start to finish is mind numbingly dull.

For some reason I went into Deadlands wanting to like it, not sure why and unfortunately I simply couldn't.

A hyper low budget zombie effort this is the first part of a trilogy and is directed by, written by and starring Gary Ugarek.

It's your pretty standard stuff, an incident occurs, zombies appear and people do their best to survive. Trouble is it never really gets going, there is no actual story. What you'll be watching for little over any hour is what happens in the first 15-20 minutes of your average zombie movie.

Now as you'd imagine it looks and sounds cheap (Because it is) but somehow they make the best of it here. It's amazing what even the slightest bit of talent behind the camera can accomplish.

In no way is Deadlands anything even remotely resembling a good film however they certainly get points for effort. Onto the sequel soon I suppose.

The Good:

Above par soundtrack

You can tell effort was made

The Bad:

Looks/sound cheap and nasty

Dreadfully paced

Being an army brat for so many years had me living all over the world and trust when I say, "I have seen my fair share of bad movies". However, what I don't get is what people hate about this film. Have any of you seen any other low budget independent zombies films? I would assume not or I wouldn't be reading some of the forum comments I have read, nor would I have read the two poor comments/reviews left for the film.

Lets be honest this film isn't a perfect 10, no film really is, but this films is a solid 6/7 all the way. Take into consideration the budget and what was pulled off, this is easily one of the better zombies films to come from the underground in years. It has its moments of being a tad slow, and it has its moments of being spot on.

Before I even watched this I had my doubts, I then read a few reviews, one being from Canada's very own horror-movies.ca. I also read the bad reviews at Cinematical and Bloody-Disgusting, and I can say this easily, the bad reviews don't have a clue. From reading the reviewers comments you can tell the film was slagged off as a waste of their time as they are too busy trying to scoop the next Hollywood horror blockbuster. This is where word of mouth has to come into play, and I will set you all straight. This is a decent zombie project and if you are a true zombie fan you will love it or like it, there is no hate, unless you don't like running zombies.

This was good effort, even if the acting is poor at times, and the film really comes together as it progresses. This is definitely not one of those films where you need to care about characters, it is just a ride along of sorts that honors all the best things there is to honor in the zombie genre.

6.8 out of 10

I recently watched this film after trading a friend my Stink of Flesh DVD for Deadlands: The Rising, and I will admit I received the better deal.

First, Deadlands is no masterpiece of low budget indie cinema, but what it is, is a zombie film which is entertaining, gory, and fun. Indie zombie films get a lot of bad rap, as does indie cinema in general. So many people are used to the polished Hollywood look and feel that when someone attempts a reality based horror film it easily gets looked over. Deadlands is one of those films that takes all the glamour out of film-making and firmly grounds it in reality.

Deadlands is no masterpiece. It's weak spots lie in the acting, an entire unknown cast with little experience, but it is far from horrible. The editing on the film is decent and the soundtrack is superb. The music builds a lot of great tension and fits this film perfectly. Many applause to the composers for the music in the film. The zombies are of the running type, but the film also shows the shambling George Romero type zombies as well and to be honest the mix of fast and slow works well with the film. The zombie attacks are fast and brutal, the best of which is the traffic jam of evacuees swallowed up by hundreds of zombies catching them in every direction they try to escape. That scene is an edge of your seat experience all by itself. Deadlands only other fault is the running time which is just under 70 minutes.

The two other most outstanding things about Deadlands, besides the music, was shot selection and set pieces. You can easily tell the filmmakers were aiming for an epic size film and they pulled it off to an extent.

Don't let the meager budget keep you from checking this out, especially if you are a zombie film fan. This is one for every zombie fans' collection.

7 stars out 0f 10 stars, deducting 3 stars for running time(wish it had been 20 minutes longer) and the acting.