Deadlands: The Rising

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

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.

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

First it was Pittsburgh, then Louisville, Ky, and now Baltimore, MD has fallen to the army of the dead in Gary Ugarek's Deadlands: The Rising.

When George Romero gave us Night of the Living Dead it was a type of horror movie never seen before, taking the zombie monster and converting it into a cannibalistic killer capable of no emotion or remorse, making it one of the most terrifying monsters in cinema history. Today countless filmmakers have copied or tried to mimic the zombie paradox, some have succeeded and some have flat out failed, but every now and again, in the countless indie zombie horror films, a diamond in the rough that peaks out to grab the attention of zombie film lovers the world over.

Deadlands is that diamond. Although very low budget, and with flaws in hand, it has a great 80's movie vibe with a realistic feel and some nice gore, not too mention scenes building suspense are done quite well and the films score is eerily effective and felt in the vein of John Carpenter's musical styling.

Zombies are what people want and they will eventually get once they progress through the story of Deadlands. The films plays the angle of an average day turning into the nightmare from hell and although the acting leaves a lot to be desired you can easily see the direction Ugarek was taking when constructing the films story. One thing I want too mention as well is how Ugarek shares a similar trait as Romero, they both like to give the audience a little political commentary in their films. Romero's Land of the Dead had a more in your face approach with the political sub plot whereas Ugarek kept his more subtle and he played on the events surrounding not only 9/11 but hurricane Katrina as well.

Deadlands single biggest problem is a very slow start. The first zombie did not appear on screen until the 22:00 mark, but once the dead begin to walk and the blood begins to flow this is where Deadlands takes off and soars. Deadlands is also a little on the short side. The films total running time is about 62:56 seconds, but the actual film and story end at about the 57:00 mark leaving nearly 6 minutes for the closing credits, which has one of the catchiest medleys of the entire films score remixed into one song.

I cannot close of this review without giving props to the make-up department. Deadlands didn't go gore crazy, but what carnage does exist is done effectively and on the meager funds Ugarek mentions in the commentary make-up FX supervisor Stephanie Petagno knows how to make the money stretch.

Deadlands is probably one of the better indie zombie efforts I have seen in a long time and I feel it is up there with the big boys. If the crew of this film can pull this off for less than $20,000 imagine what they could do with $20,000,000.

7 out of 10

I sat down to watch this movie, with my brother. Together, we are NOTORIOUS fans of any and all zombie movies. However, I was almost instantly let down. From the opening shot with some unknown woman writing in her journal about a mysterious man who ruined the planet or somesuch, into the overly pretentious 11 minute opening credits....... OK, I digress.. but seriously, who cares about the radio stations still working and the 2 fat guys who drive around for a while mumbling. I don't have any idea what they were blathering on about and I somehow doubt it would have improved the scene much if I'd bothered to turn the volume up to a level which would have made the background music cause my ears to bleed. Wwhile I'm on the subject of music...it was there when it shouldn't have been and STOPPED the moment it needed to be there.. music while talking and none during 'action'. I absolutely despise when somebody reviews a movie that they did not even watch through, but *I* could not finish this movie.. for only the third time ever ( the first, being the pitiful remake of Rollerball, and second being that miserable piece of rancid feces, Freddy Got Fingered).

We got tired of all the non-stop "dialogue" and ended up fast forwarding in minor one-minute increments to see if it would ever end.. 30 minutes into the movie there was no sign of substance. So we took a five minute jump and were.... rewarded... with a blurry slow motion shot of people chewing on what appeared to be bloody eels, in a seriously unconvincing manner. The great John Romero did much much better with FRIED CHICKEN.. nothing bloody.. nothing weird....simple FRIED CHICKEN.

Another leap revealed something that seemed to approach an action scene but was lacking in background music (mentioned above) and we simply shut the "film" off. I went back later to try again... and still couldn't. Everyone's lines were forced, their every motion was filled with stagefright... or possibly too much drug usage. Seriously, the little kid looked high. For crying out loud guys, you should have at least watched your own film and realized that you BADLY needed to do another take. Heck, even other indie filmmakers have the intellect to know when they are making an unwatchable scene.

I'm not even going to be able to be polite here and say something re-assuring like "good first effort'.... these guys just don't have the talent to make movies. I'm aware they also have a history of attacking reviewers.. have at it, guys.. it won't change how simply awful this is. You're not "indie filmmakers" you're just a bunch of kids with a camera. This "film" is acceptable for an 8th grade show and tell session; nothing more.