Death Valley: The Revenge of Bloody Bill

I rented this from Blockbuster because I could get 3 films for 7 nights for £5. The other 2 were Dead End and Black Knight (I wanted to see some cheesy goldmines). Black Knight and Dead End are cheesy goldmines which made me laugh so I thought £5 well spent until I saw this steaming pile! Truly awful! I honestly believe the guy who did this could'nt direct traffic never mind a film. Please no more - you've had your chance. First of all the music was terrible and boring. The opening sequence my girlfriend fell asleep to. The zombies looked terrible. That Chelsea Jean girl was possibly the worst actress ever. The only decent part was watching the awful characters getting picked off. We cheered when they got it. I only gave it a 3 because of the fact it was on for little over an hour which meant I didn't have to suffer for much longer. I'm handing it back to Blockbuster tomorrow where I will complain that it should be them paying me to watch this tripe!

A group of teens (on their way to a debating competition) are taken hostage by a drug dealer who is looking for his partner in crime. They are forced to drive to the dilapidated ghost-town of Sunset Valley. Here they are attacked by a load of zombies, led by the evil Bloody Bill, a Confederate soldier seeking revenge for the deaths of himself and his sister.

Byron Werner, the 'director' of this crap-fest, has definitely got ideas above his station. Instead of accepting that he's helming a low budget horror film, he goes all 'Tony Scott' on us and uses annoying directorial and editing techniques to excess: bleached out film stock, staccato editing, wobbly camera-work, coloured filters. This isn't art, Byron... neither is it a music video... it's schlock horror, so cut out the pretentious film-making and start off by learning how to tell a story!

The plot is a weak derivative mixture of elements from H.G. Lewis' 2000 Maniacs and Romero's Night of the Living Dead, without an ounce of the charm of either of these classics. The annoying teens are portrayed by a talentless bunch of nobodies and they deliver their lines as though reading off a board. The awful script is clichéd drivel, with dreadful dialogue and absolutely no logic. Hell, it even has the teens debating with each other whilst under attack from the living dead!

The 'special effects' are also lousy; the zombie makeup is extremely amateurish and the gore content is fairly low. Even the zombie extras are bad: they shuffle in a variety of unconvincing manners—some fast, some slow, and, I'm convinced, some with grins on their faces.

I'm a great fan of zombie films and usually cut even the worst efforts some slack if they deliver ample blood 'n' guts, but Death Valley: The Revenge of Bloody Bill fails even with this simple task and receives the lowest possible rating from me.

Bloody Bill is indeed a bloody awful film. Its soundtrack is very irritating, there is no single atmospheric tune, just irritating rock/metal crap! The zombies actually run and talk! So far it sounds dodgy, doesn't it? In addition, there is a stupid criminal called Bloody Bill who dominates the zombies. Are real zombies dominated by anyone? I certainly don't think so!

The story is about a drugs smuggler who is forced to run away since he is chased by a cop, he escapes from the cop to a Abandoned town in which the dead rise and Bloody Bill rise! The drugs smuggler is killed by the zombies. However, The partner of the drugs smuggler wants his dope. Therefore, he doesn't give up and forces a bunch of young people to help him find his dead partner since they have a car. The whole group arrives at that abandoned town, and they find out that the dead and Bloody Bill reigns it!

I know that this description sounds good, but trust me, it's bloody awful! There are few gore and action scenes which can entertain, however ,This film is just bloody awful, and those gore and action scenes don't improve this worthless film. I cannot recommend it to the old school zombies fans since it's a terrible new school on. I even think that the remake of Dawn Of The Dead is much better than this worthless new school zombies movie. 2/10

Okay, I like zombie movies. I really do, and I'm willing to forgive a lot when it comes to low budget zombie movies. Especially ones that have their tongue firmly pressed into their cheek. Having said that, I think this may be one of the worst zombie movies to make its way onto the Blockbuster video shelves in a long time (and that's pretty bad, considering there's dreck like "Corpses Are Forever" out there).

It's not worth going into the plot, because there really isn't one.

It's vaguely like From Dusk Till Dawn with zombies, but without the Tarantino dialogue and Rodriguez direction. If you wind up renting this cowpie, look for the best editorial mistake ever. It's toward the middle of the movie, where the black drug dealer (stereotypes anyone?) says something like, "With all due respect, if you can point that gun somewhere else" then... watch for it, he actually mouths the other actor's line. Best part of the movie.

My review for Death Valley: The Revenge Of Bloody Bill? I made it all the way through and it didn't stink. An unusual zombie concept (an old prospector seeking revenge from beyond the grave in a western ghost town) with an engaging score (for those who like death metal), the best thing that can be said is the movie kept me interested. Also, the acting wasn't horrible. But the script was amateurish, the dialogue was weak, the logic (that is, horror movie logic) was uneven and some of the camera shots were way too gimmicky (except for the flashbacks; those were cool). There are a lot of things that could have been done - simple things - to make it a much better movie: i.e, why is it one of the students trapped in the town knows the whole legend about Bloody Bill and yet none of the others, his friends, have even heard of it at all? Also, why does the little "population" count on the town sign keep ticking up after people are killed, but does not tick down for the zombies that have been destroyed? Niggling problems, but bothersome. Still, it was not the worst zombie movie I have ever seen - that distinction goes to House of the Dead, Flesheater, Children of the Living Dead, or Zombie Lake (take your pick).