The Dead and the Damned

Initially just by the DVD cover alone you know what kind of movies you will be in for when you pick up this movie. But still, being the zombie aficionado that I am, I just had to watch it regardless.

The story in "The Dead and the Damned" or "Cowboys & Zombies" as it is titled on the DVD cover and in the actual movie, is some prospectors uncover what appears to be a meteor and brings it into town, attempts to crack it open and something green spews out. This green haze turns the prospectors into, yeah you guessed it, zombies! However, this puzzled me, because in a very short time the prospectors were quite decayed and decomposed, but still they remained their agility and ability to jump, run, sprint and do acrobatics.

However, the movie actually have good production and good cinematography and that shines through the movie and actually makes it worth sitting through.

The zombies, well I prefer shambling zombies that are unable of running and zombies that doesn't sound like marauding lions from the sound they make. That was a real bummer in the movie. The zombies also had that classic, low-budget-way-too-gray make-up on their faces, and for some reason their blood was green. And I just loved how the blood would spray up into the air whenever a zombie was shot, and then the blood simply just dissipated into thin air. That was just hilarious.

Effects-wise, then "Cowboys & Zombies" wasn't actually too shabby. The zombies, aside from the lame sounds and the gray-skin, actually looked decent enough and the effects were alright. The setting of the movie was also quite good and believable, aside from the poor choice of music, which seemed really unsuitable for a horror western.

I have sat through a lot of low-budget zombies movies in my time, and "Cowboys & Zombies" is actually on the better end of the scale of low-budget zombie movies. There are a lot of zombie movies out there far worse than this one.

And what was up with the guy on the DVD cover? I don't believe I even saw him in the movie! Epic!

Mixing cowboys/westerns and zombies have been done before. And in my personal opinion, it is not really the best of combinations. That period of time just doesn't work well with the living dead.

It's a very cheap, very badly acted waste of time that seems to have been put together by a bunch of Wild West theme park employees during their lunch break. It's not even bad enough to be funny.

1/10 but only because we can't give 0.

I have only watched half of this movie as of the time this review is being written.

according to IMDb, this film was made with a budget of $30,000 (thirty thousand, not million) dollars.

if that is correct- then FANTASTIC results for the money spent.

I agree with most of the other reviewers: C-grade acting, D-grade script, but the film looks and sounds great.

so again, good news: if you have $30K, and if you have a bunch of friends who want to work cheap, and if you are talented enough to tell a good story, then this movie will be an inspiration.

... Hey, even Kevin Smith started with nothing.

Really, what dd you expect? This was an indie film done by mostly local people with tiny budget. You go into this film without much expectation and it doesn't disappoint. Perez has put together a showcase of his talents as a young filmmaker and this film is merely him cutting his teeth. He shows promise with the action scenes, but the story line is generic. The actors ... well ... let's just say it seems the cast and crew had fun making this. The post-production effects are elementary, the make-up actually inspired (the high point of the film) and the boobs are, well, epic. What can I say; I'm a guy. If your goal it to watch zombie movies, make sure this one is on your list. You can make it fun by having a drinking game related to the anachronisms (I see plywood ... drink!).

After a pair of miners crack open a strange meteor, alien spores infect the townsfolk of a small mining community, turning them into ravenous zombies. High-pitched bounty hunter Mortimer (David A. Lockhart), noble Indian brave Brother Wolf (Rick Mora) and winsome wench Rhiannon (Camille Montgomery) attempt to escape the area before becoming zombie chow.

Originally called The Dead and the Damned, this was retitled as Cowboys & Zombies for its DVD release, no doubt in a desperate attempt to associate itself with recent Hollywood blockbuster Cowboys & Aliens. Those dumb enough to confuse the two films should count themselves lucky, though: its budget might have been a fraction of the Daniel Craig/Harrison Ford movie, but Cowboys & Zombies actually proves to be the marginally more enjoyable effort.

Unlike Cowboys & Aliens, which given its huge budget and A-list talent was a huge disappointment, Cowboys & Zombies actually lives up to expectations ie., it's a poorly acted, shot on a shoestring, goofy B-movie horror that hasn't a clue what to do with its initial premise (the film meanders aimlessly before ending abruptly) but it at least manages to deliver blood, guts, zombies, and good looking, big breasted gals shedding their clothes, which is better than 118 minutes and $163 million worth of dreary, poorly written, CGI enhanced drivel in my book.