Shadow: Dead Riot

The Women in Prison genre was once saturated by the sleazy films of the likes of Jess Franco and Joe D'Amato; but has all but died out since then and all we are left is the residue; which includes Shadow: Dead Riot. The film is something of a coming together of the aforementioned Women in Prison genre and the zombie genre; although by only giving fleeting glimpses of both, it fails to really nail down either one, and what we are left is a rather silly mess; although it is a sporadically entertaining mess. The film begins with execution of a prison inmate who goes by the name of Shadow. Shadow is apparently a mass murderer with voodoo powers (and just to give you an idea of the overall quality of the film; he's played by Tony Todd in a ridiculous wig!). Anyway, Shadow is killed and his death triggers some sort of curse on the prison. Years later; the prison has become a woman's prison and is welcoming a new arrival in the form of a chick called Solitaire. Solitaire apparently has some link with Shadow and her arrival triggers his second coming...

The film is obviously very low rent and anyone going into it is liable to know that; so it would be a bit pointless to say that the acting is atrociously wooden and ridiculous. My main reason for seeing this film was undoubtedly the presence of soft porn star Misty Mundae. She's bad in this film even by her own low acting standards; and her role is made even more disappointing by the fact that she's not in it for long. The only other name on the cast list likely to be recognised by horror fans belongs to the aforementioned Tony Todd...who picks up his pay cheque. The plot is always silly and ridiculous; but there are a couple of good ideas in there that keep things interesting. There are plenty of coincidences and plot holes too...so, as is often the case with films like this, it's best to turn your brain off before the film starts. The central plot involving the new prison inmates is actually one of the less interesting parts of the film, however, which brings it down. All in all, this is a decent way to kill ninety minutes and while film critics won't be impressed; if you like low budget trash, you might like this.

Bad ass phychopath, Shadow (Candyman's Tony Todd) is executed, but not before starting a full scale riot resulting in many prisoner deaths. Twenty years later the prison is now a womens' penitentiary. Focusing on the new inmate, Solitaire (Carla Greene), a tough girl who Shadow was planning to sacrifice when she was a baby, it isn't long before the zombies of the prisoners led by Shadow himself are out to finish what he started. This cheesy b-grade horror flick might have had a little promise in the beginning and I like Tony Todd, but once the film gets to the women's prison and focuses on it's inhabitants, the film becomes simply dreadfully lame, not even the shower scene or other nudity could save it from sub-par mediocrity. The film does pick up in the last 30 minutes or so, but not enough to make it watchable.

my grade: D

Eye Candy: Toy, and Aggie Valdez show tits; Misty Mundae gives full frontal; Danielle Riley shows EVERYthing; and various extras show much skin as well

If you're looking for a halfway decent women-in-prison film, look elsewhere. This one isn't campy-fun, it's campy-boring. What really irritates me is that some of the casting is excellent, with Margaret Baker just right as a predatory lesbian guard looking to enjoy the bodies of pretty female inmates like Misty Mundae and Ruby Larocca. But aside from some brief conversation, nothing remotely kinky or erotic ever happens! It's a waste of perfectly good female talent! And if you're not going to have at least one good girl/girl moment then WHY bother with a women-in-prison setting in the first place? The silly zombie plot would have been far more palatable had more attention been paid to the pretty girls-with-other-girls behind bars!

This movie incorporated at least 3 genres:women's prison,oriental action, and ghoulish horror. In that respect, it was an adventurous 90 minutes! While Tony was his usual imposing self, the guy playing Dr. Swann struck some realistic chords. He let his motivation for power and sex come through slowly and built up to the final climax.Given the ambitious nature of the film, the cast did the best job they could with minimal dialogue and tough action sequences. Speaking of the action, it was done in a way familiar to those who know Asian action films -- fast, violent, and well interspersed throughout the film. Carla Green looked great in a demanding physical role and I'd love to see more of her! As in many of these kinds of movies, maybe they tried to please too many people, but I'd love to see a sequel

Derek Wan deserves a tip of the proverbial hat. Whilst other directors only managed to create dreck as bad as this only during the past few years, he succeeded in putting this steaming pile together almost a decade and a half ago - surely a visionary act!

It's got everything you'd expect of a 2019/2020 creation... A $2.50 crystal microphone used for the sound... Shot using a $200 digital camera with plastic lens... Special effects from the requisite great-aunt's make-up case... Script written by a stoner with a severe case of the "munchies..." And a cast made up of the "wanna-bes" who didn't even manage to catch the bus to get to a real talent agency.

It should come as no surprise that Misty Mundae was in this (in this case using her alternative stage name of Erin Brown) - not that she's incredibly bad (she was actually one of the better performers, which in itself says a lot), but because she always seems to be involved with "WTF were they thinking" movies.

I can imagine this would be a very watchable movie for 13-14 year old boys, owing to its incessant gratuitous nudity and very pathetic (even for a daytime soap opera) sex scenes - or maybe for a late-teen stoner - but anyone with even a slightly functional grey matter will be reaching for the remote within minutes of the start.

Steer clear if you value your time and sanity.