Deadlands: The Rising

First off this is a bro film, a bro his buddy's lots of buddies a camera and a script. Starting off I don't know where the movie stats they have this big half hour monologue about the war and what caused the zombies but its just a bunch of fat people going hunting no zombies. Finally we see police and soldiers goateed hab shab uniformed sent out to protect the shelter. Well didn't the screenwriter have a buddy in the army or something who could've added some jargon? Even Tucker MAX (I hope they served beer in hell/assholes finish first) bragged about his soldier buddies calling people cock-holsters. Here the police preach to the soldiers about deadly force. No soldiers call it R.O.E rules of engagement; the police call it use of force. Anyhow the zombie make up is black and white. The movie fails to deal with man dealing with man during the outbreak its just fat zombies running around. I did like the camera work, felt like you were confused and in the middle of it.

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.

The video and audio quality is sub-par. To me, it felt like a home video reminiscent of something you'd see taken at the relatives place on Thanksgiving Day.

The acting is amateurish, forced, and seemingly barely rehearsed. The screenplay/dialog is poorly written.

You just know a movie is going to blow when 50% of the opening credits go to special FX techs, the dude who cast "extras" for zombies, and the writer/director/editor is credited with about a half of a dozen other billets.

Usually, I'd say that a movie this horrible is worth watching for the simple entertainment of pointing and laughing at how bad it is... but the whole thing from start to finish is mind numbingly dull.

I recently watched this film after trading a friend my Stink of Flesh DVD for Deadlands: The Rising, and I will admit I received the better deal.

First, Deadlands is no masterpiece of low budget indie cinema, but what it is, is a zombie film which is entertaining, gory, and fun. Indie zombie films get a lot of bad rap, as does indie cinema in general. So many people are used to the polished Hollywood look and feel that when someone attempts a reality based horror film it easily gets looked over. Deadlands is one of those films that takes all the glamour out of film-making and firmly grounds it in reality.

Deadlands is no masterpiece. It's weak spots lie in the acting, an entire unknown cast with little experience, but it is far from horrible. The editing on the film is decent and the soundtrack is superb. The music builds a lot of great tension and fits this film perfectly. Many applause to the composers for the music in the film. The zombies are of the running type, but the film also shows the shambling George Romero type zombies as well and to be honest the mix of fast and slow works well with the film. The zombie attacks are fast and brutal, the best of which is the traffic jam of evacuees swallowed up by hundreds of zombies catching them in every direction they try to escape. That scene is an edge of your seat experience all by itself. Deadlands only other fault is the running time which is just under 70 minutes.

The two other most outstanding things about Deadlands, besides the music, was shot selection and set pieces. You can easily tell the filmmakers were aiming for an epic size film and they pulled it off to an extent.

Don't let the meager budget keep you from checking this out, especially if you are a zombie film fan. This is one for every zombie fans' collection.

7 stars out 0f 10 stars, deducting 3 stars for running time(wish it had been 20 minutes longer) and the acting.

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.