Death Warmed Up

Personally I'm convinced "Death Warmed Up" was completed by a clique of people suffering from Attention Deficit Disorder (the infamous A.D.D. syndrome)… Either that or a bunch of mushroom-addicted guys with a permanent overdose of acid in their blood. How else would you clarify the film's total lack of narrative structure, the exaggeratedly high amount of nonsensical plot-twists, the overzealous editing, the demented characters and the copious number of grotesquely over-the-top grossness? "Death Warmed Up" is a wildly incoherent and thoroughly bizarre horror effort from New Zealand – reputedly the country's first full-blooded genre outing – that more or less describes itself as a demented and very loose interpretation of the legendary "Island of Dr. Moreau" tale. But then again, Dr. Moreau at least had a clear mission he wanted to achieve whereas Dr. Archer Howell, the lunatic scientist in this film, seemingly just surrounds himself with a large collection of genetically altered freaks for his own personal amusement. Throughout the entire film, his motivations for performing medical experiments on random island people remain unexplained. He has freaky half-man and half-monster guinea pigs working for him, creepy guys without eyebrows running loose and an entire army of deformed abnormalities locked away in a basement. The predominant storyline, however, revolves on one of Dr. Howell's very first victims seeking vengeance for the agony he cost. As a teenager, Michael got brainwashed and shotgun-massacred his own parents under the malignant influence of Dr. Howell. He spent the following seven years in a mental institution, but now Michael's back (with a new and Blade Runner type of hairdo) and unstoppably furious. Along with his girl and a befriended couple, Michael ferries to Dr. Howell's island resort, but they'll have to face his creations first before they can get to him. "Death Warmed Up" is, well, shall I say … completely bonkers! The script makes very little sense (or even no sense at all) and leaps from one subject to another all the time. Michael & C° supposedly come for revenge, yet they start their trip by going to the beach and during several situations it's actually Michael's friend Lucas who proves to be the most courageous one of the bunch. There are plenty of odd homosexual undertones in the film, as well as some misplaced attempts at humor (the Indian store clerk) and a bizarre type of ambiance I can't possibly categorize. One thing "Death Warmed Up" does deliver plenty of, however, is gore and bloodshed! The aforementioned shotgun killings are supremely nasty, and they're just at the beginning of the film. Furthermore, there are repugnant brain surgeries, impalements and gooey zombie make-up effects aplenty. The zombie creatures are quite menacing, particularly the bloke without eyebrows (displayed on the cover-image) and the typical New Zealand accents and slang are a joy to listen to. The acting performances are below average and insignificant, still devoted horror fans should keep an eye open for a brief appearance by Ian Watkin (awesome, arse-kicking uncle Les from "Braindead") as Bill the ferryman. "Death Warmed Up" is far too unbalanced to be considered as a worthwhile horror outing, but it's still a fun and gore-soaked excuse to spend 85 minutes of your time.

I bought this on Amazon.Com, and watched it last night, not knowing at all what to expect. And I must say, I liked it.

Ten years ago, Michael was hypnotized by a very unstable doctor into killing his own parents. Then he is locked up in the mental institution for it. In the present (or the present time of the movie) Michael, his girlfriend Sandy, and their friends Lucas and Jeannie head to an island for a vacation, where the doctor has moved his work to, and has started a new experiment in reprogramming people's minds. And Michael wants revenge for what was done to him, planning to kill the doctor. But they still plan to have a fun vacation, too. (I told you the movie was strange.) Anyway, when they get there, they see how the doctor has taken over the island, and then get themselves involved in some risky business to find the doctor, which leads to chases, attacks, and some all-around good scares.

I wasn't sure I liked this movie, but now I think I did. Some of it was weird, and I didn't understand every aspect, but it was still exciting. The chase scene in the tunnels was great, as was the attack on the pub. The characters were all likable, and the acting was surprisingly good. Of course, there's no denying that this is a B-movie, but it's well done. Towards the end, it gets sort of weird, and actually sort of tense, because you don't know if Michael is crazy or what, because he is pushed to the edge in this movie. But luckily, he isn't the only one in the spotlight. Everyone seems to be a star. Sandy, his girlfriend, is a great character, even though she manages to really set in with the waterworks towards the end of the movie. I think she cries for five minutes straight.

The actual ending is odd, but really good. I didn't understand what the deal was with Michael at that point, but it was still pretty cool, and the slow-motion of Sandy running seemed to have a weird effect. Overally, a pretty good movie. I'd recommend it, but don't try to understand it all.

So says one of the characters in this odd little number from New Zealand. It took me a little while to realise that the leading man was played by the same Michael Hurst, who is better known for playing Iolaus in the long running Hercules TV series.

There seem to be a myriad of other films that this one has either borrowed from of been influenced by. Mad Max, Night (and Dawn)of the living Dead, Island of Dr Moreau or any other mad scientist movie. The actual story structure is somewhat disjointed, as we never really find out why the mad doctor wants to transform ordinary men into 'demented mutated killing machines.' Is there a world wide shortage of demented mutated killing machines? I don't think so if the news is anything to go by.

It does make sense that he does programme our hero to kill his parents who are standing in the way of his experiments but why let him live afterwards to come back for revenge? The whole island laboratory to do his crazed work on is straight out of 'Dr. No.' But with less sense or reason.

Not totally explained why the hero turns up on holiday with his friends after been released from the insane asylum, just happens to be the same island where his nemesis resides.

But enough of sense and logic, the actual film is decent watching and holds the interest till the end and at around 75 minutes on the DVD I saw, it doesn't outstay it's welcome. Plenty of gore scenes for those who like that stuff, maybe the villain just liked doing brain work as his motive for it all.

The ending is rather pointless as my fellow reviewer pointed out and it does seem they just ran out of ideas and decided to go out on a supposed shock ending.

Just two last points to make, there was a Pakistani shopkeeper who was a very bad racial stereotype and there for 'comicial' effect. Not sure if it wasn't a white actor blacked up either, it was that unpleasant.

Also at the beginning when he is supposed to be younger and running around in short trousers, he just looks ridiculous. I know Michael Hurst isn't the tallest bloke around but he just looks like an overgrown schoolboy or the lead singer in AC/DC. And there are gay overtones when he is in the shower afterwards as well but that plot line is just left hanging.

Overall, a strange but otherwise interesting film.

I was told about this site from a friend. I'm the guy who played SPIDER. As someone commented, no eyebrows. We did it way back when we were all in our twenties. It was a great amount of fun to do. The creative team came from both film and theatre industry. I'd just finished a pirate movie with Tommy Lee Jones, Michael O'Keefe and Jenny Seagrove and a lot of theatre. Michael (Hurst) was also a fellow theatre actor and we went on after this to do a couple of stage plays together. As was also noted, Michael went on to do 'Hercules'. At the time, Fangoria was the genre magazine of choice, and, with David (Blyth) and Murray (Newey - RIP) and the script by Michael Heath, with the 80's sex chic of the nurses, designed by Micahel Glock, we hit Auckland with all the energy that a 4 week shoot can muster. It's amazing to read comments from watchers/viewers some, what? 25 years later! Don't get too analytical....we just went for the jugular and hoped that somewhere along the line it'd all make sense! Along the way we shot stuff in a deserted and rather creepy abattoir, the tunnels on the island off Auckland city, and got right into ridged knives with back splatter.

This one was made 3 years before Peter Jackson's Bad Taste and was the first horror coming out of kiwi-land New Zealand. So for the real collectors it's a must have and for somehow it wasn't that easy to find a copy of it. There are a lot of bad copies to find and even mine was a bad copy even as it was a DVD release. Is it worth searching, well, there's splatter in it but overall it bored me a lot and I had the skip button ready in my hand. If you see what Peter Jackson did 3 years later that is unforgettable but here the storyline is really stupid, it's all about the gore but again, made in 1984 it could have done much better. There's a bit of nudity in it but don't mentionable. If you are a hunter for splatters than you must have it in your collection or for being the first kiwi-horror. Don't expect some kind of eighties German splatter or Jackson splatter, just watch it and forget it.