Dead Air

If you watch one movie with a radio station and an infection make it "Pontypool". If you want to watch more than one, this one is decent enough for you to watch it once. It's certainly refreshing to watch Bill Mosley in a different sort of role/character. While he's doing a good job, McHattie was just terrific and could not be matched (which of course is also a sign, that Pontypool has the better script and therefor also the better story).

The effects are good enough for a small budget and the movie does do a decent job in getting the movie along. You have to excuse the movie for some stupid character behaviour of course (something that quite a few horror movies seem to be infected with). If you can do that, you will be able to enjoy it (or if you cut the movie quite some slack, you will even rate it higher than I did)

The idea behind Dead Silence is great: zombie outbreak takes place during an edgy paranoia radio talk show. There was so much going for this film. Unfortunately, as soon as the zombies made their appearance, all was lost.

The film is ridiculous and only those with a passion for cheesy, b-flick horror will enjoy it. The zombies were soooo stupid! They ran around flailing their arms. They looked like a bunch of people putting on a haunted house for elementary students.

I know this is a brief review, but I just don't see the need to invest much into this. It's a dumb movie. You've been warned.

"Dead Air" is a zombie film with a few different elements of surprise thrown in for good measure. An overtly, competent talk radio host (Bill Moseley) speaks his mind to a late night audience, while an outbreak of toxic zombie-juice (brought on by Muslim terrorists) engulfs an unsuspecting city. Not a bad premise, but really nothing new. It was a bit preachy for a horror flick, and spent a lot of time using underlining character relationships to tug at the viewer's heart-strings (sorry, didn't quite work here) and this slowed the pacing down for much of the film. Moseley, along with the (always sexy) Patricia Tallman do a decent job as the film's protagonists, while the zombies themselves (with blood dripping from their eyes) tear apart their victims. I'm guessing the film's Armageddon theme was a lesson in hatred, and the writer's views on the world today. I didn't realize until the end credits that "Corbin Bernsen" was the director... I guess I didn't even realize that he was a "director" for that fact, but "Dead Air" is a pleasantly fun zombie movie if zombie movies are your thing. Breaks no new ground, but none the less "entertains" the way it's supposed to.

During a crowded basketball game four terrorists break into the ventilation room of the gymnasium and contaminate the air supply with a deadly new virus. Unfortunately for them, they accidentally infect themselves in the process as well. However, having accomplished their main objective they then head to a nearby radio station to announce their hate-filled message to the world. Meanwhile, at the radio station a talk show host named "Logan Burnhardt" (Bill Moseley) and his partner, "Gil" (David Moscow) are on the air discussing the topic of the day when reports begin to come in by local listeners describing the zombie epidemic which is rapidly spreading out of control. Anyway, this film has several good things going for it. Bill Mosely, David Moscow, Joshua Feinman (as "Burt") and the red-haired vixen, Patricia Tallman (as "Lucy") all put in outstanding performances. The action was brisk and the plot was quite interesting as well. In short, this is definitely worth viewing for those who enjoy a good zombie film. As a side note, if one has some time on their hands this might also go well as a double-feature with a similar film of this type called, "Pontypool". I found both to be quite enjoyable.

Dead Air - yet another zombie film. And this one doesn't even have the budget of the Resident Evil films, so that doesn't really bode well.

It's about a zombie outbreak (or rather 'infected' as the 'zombies' resemble the 'infected' people from 28 Days Later rather than George Romero's slow-moving 'shufflers') in Los Angeles which starts off near a late-night radio station. The staff there have no idea what's happening and do their best to cover the sensational news story as best they can.

It's mainly set inside the towerblock/radio studios which masks the lack of budget as best it can. However, the film's biggest problem is another ('zombie') movie made the year before called Pontypool. It too does exactly the same thing, i.e. a low budget zombie movie set in a late night radio station where a smart-alec 'shock-jock' covers the outbreak.

I quite enjoyed Dear Air. The characters were pretty believable and the plot slightly different as to the zombies' origins, but, all the way through it, I just couldn't get Pontypool out of my head.

If you haven't seen Pontypool and like zombie movies, I would definitely recommend Dead Air. However, if you have seen Pontypool, there's not an awful lot new here and it might come across as retreading old ground.