The Dead Hate the Living!

A group of underground filmmakers head to an abandoned hospital to shoot a zombie film. The group stumbles across a contraption that turns out to be a gateway to another world. Through this gateway comes the walking dead, led by a Rob Zombie look-a-like, and real life 7'6" giant Matt McGary who many may recognize as being a regular on the Howard Stern Radio Show. Director Dave Parker is definitely a fan of horror films, and it really shows, although he is no Lucio Fulci The Dead Hate the Living is a great film, similar to Dan O'Bannon's Return of the Living Dead (1985). Story wise, the film is not much different than other zombie epics, but one interesting scene in the film occurs when the film--makers put on zombie make-up to sneak past their undead foes. The film is a giant step upwards from the usual Full Moon product marketed at 14 year-old toy collectors. The disc comes with a music video by punk band Penis Flytrap, also directed by Dave Parker. I'm looking forward to seeing more of this guy's films; and harder edge Full Moon product in future releases.

I'm so tired of supposedly clever, overly self-conscious horror films. I know there are generational differences and a lot of people find this type of thing humorous and hip. In the early 90's, there was a film called "There's Nothing Out There" which was about a slimy green monster from outer space killing vacationing teens at a house in the woods over Spring Break. There was a horror movie nut who bothered everybody by making references to other horror films. At the time, that seemed funny and the movie itself is a ragged, messy charmer. I believe this is the film Kevin Williamson used to help him along in writing the script for "Scream", which while I did enjoy it, has hurt the horror genre through it's lazy deconstruction of modern horror. "The Dead Hate The Living" is a bandwagon film that only goes to show that even with a larger than usual budget and good intentions (but obviously pandering to the "Scream" demographic), a horror movie you cannot make.

I do have a theory that maybe people who like horror a little too much and are too eager to please cannot make a decent, serious horror picture. I do have a problem with people who like references to Warbeck and Campbell and Fulci. Do you like being patronized? I don't think you do. Why do you make special concessions for filmmakers who obviously take the easy way out by making you feel superior because you can pick up on what are basically pop-culture references? All the horror films of the past we champion have none of these obvious references. Are we so devoid of creativity or original thought (or filmmaking prowess) that we cannot make(or get to see) a good horror film anymore? I think they got us in a box and we can't get out.

I liked SCREAM as much as the next guy, but it's all but ruined horror films from 1996 and beyond. It's a shame to see it rub off on so many young horror filmmakers and an even bigger shame that they allow an overabundance of film references and endless blabber about various horror films to take the place of a plot and REAL dialogue. It's really a lazy way to construct a movie and really just a way to demonstrate the filmmakers know their s**t. Who really cares? And if they DO watch and love the horror films of Romero and Fulci, they'd know that nothing is worth sacrificing atmosphere, scares and a true sense of humor over. This movie is also derivative in its style- it is well photographed and richly colored in different shades, but even THAT aspect is just copycatting Dario Argento.

Everyone has already summed up the confusing "plot," of this Full Moon feature, so I won't waste time on it, just to say that THE DEAD HATE THE LIVING is made up of so many different elements from so many other zombie/horror movies that its OWN identity becomes lost in the shuffle and it doesn't quite make it as a comedy, a parody OR a horror film. However, I think some of the cast members (Jamie Donahue, Brett Beardslee..) have the potential to make an impression in the horror genre given the right opportunities.

Score: 3 out of 10.

This is one of those movies that you don't see very often. It was good and bad. The good parts in this movie are the deaths and violence. The bad parts are that there was a long boring beginning. If you like zombie movies, rent it. It's not the best, but it's alright. I gave this a 8.

I am still wondering what I was thinking when I rented this. I read about it in Fango and remembered them talking about how their zombies didn't eat human flesh, they just wanted to rip humans up, due to the fact that "it costs too much" to show cannibalism. I guess the premise of some filmmakers making a zombie flick in an abandomed asylum/hospital/whatever it was only to find real zombies there seemed sort of neat. MAN was I wrong. I knew I had made a huge error in judgement by renting it when early on, there is a scene where a supposedly 'hot' blonde babe wearing all black or course, goes into a convenience store for supplies. The cashier leers at her while ringing it up, then says, "that'll be $36.97" and she simply takes the sack, glares at him, and walks off making some rude comment. He just stares at her. You know what they forgot to include in the scene? See, there's this tradition when you make a purchase where after you find out the total, you **actually give the salesperson some form of currency in exchange for your items**. And the guy doesn't remark in any way about her not paying (or make any remark at all), so you know it was just sheer sloppiness on the part of the filmmakers. It just got worse from there. The worst make-up effects I've seen in quite some time, and that's saying a lot. THe previous reviewer was right, the stupid "skull" makeup on some guy playing a zombie actually gets less realistic when he turns into a zombie for real. I would like to give them a little credit for using air bladders instead of CGI (yeah, like they could afford it), but they actually parts of a guy's skeleton stretching like it was made of rubber. Little hint when you use air bladders guys, try to restrict them to parts of the body that actually stretch. One particularly bad effect was fake teeth, supposed to be part of the skull showing through, that actually were visibly glued on top of his upper lip (there was a second set underneath). Please note that I am making the effect sound more realistic than it was. The acting was slightly above average, but with lines like, "I think we've slipped into some kind of, like, netherworld, man" what can ya do? The plot seemed like it was being made up as they went along. There were elements that just plain insulted the audience's intelligence, such as a zombie whose main feature was that he visibly lacked any semblance of a nose, sniffing someone to see if they were human. I could predict everything before it happened. Don't even get me started on the much better films that they ripped off blatantly (and DON'T try to tell me they were homages, I know the difference) such as Fright Night, Alien 4, Dusk Till Dawn, all the Evil Dead Movies...those are just off the top of my head, too. At one point, the Rob Zombie character says, "Make them die...slowly" and I guess we are supposed to be impressed that they tossed in a reference to the cannibal flick of the same name. As far as the ending, they seem to have just ran out of money and film as many threads were left hanging (I have a horrible feeling this is because they were planning a sequel). Oh, and the credits were lifted from se7en. God, I wish I'd read the reviews here before I wasted 3 bucks and 90 minutes of my life on this stupid peice of s***!