Deadman Apocalypse

Charlie Steeds is a British filmmaker who has produced some passable efforts in low budget filmmaking. This early effort shows some moxie to be sure but doesn't live up to expectations. Many have made much of the fact that the movie's budget was 1500 pounds. What was put up on screen for that amount was the admirable part. The rest of the movie lacks. A claustrophobic effort, the action is severely lacking--there aren't a lot of choices when your set consists of low, narrow tunnels constructed from wooden pallets. Clearly, this is supposed to be some coming of age epic backdropped by an apocalyptic event that destroys the world and forces humanity underground to survive, as we see when a special ops team enters the tunnel system to retrieve some stolen water. This may have worked if the script was better, but it isn't. This movie is too talky for the set--who wants to listen to half-baked exposition while actors struggle to crawl around in these halls of pallet? And if there was a way to make exciting action sequences in these tunnels, the filmmakers didn't have it. This one gets rather tedious until the characters manage to break free from their underground hell, but by then most viewers will have lost interest. Check out Charlie Steeds' latter efforts like WINTERSKIN to see the man's vision realized well.

According to the IMDb trivia section this film has a budget of £1,500. If nothing else at least the budget is up there on screen by being filmed inside a couple of elongated crates. Yes that's right elongated crates.

At least the producers are trying to do something a little bit different involving a British apocalypse , one that doesn't involve zombies in a 28 DAYS LATER rip off. Any admiration quickly becomes diluted down to the fact that nothing else about the production works. It's more of an adult fairy-tale rather than any type of apocalyptic adventure. This doesn't stop the narrative suffering from some quite ridiculous plot holes that defy the laws of science and logic . Example you ask ? How are you able to grow sustainable food crops underground out of sunlight. Yes some people have reverted to cannibalism but surely people would die from scurvy or be crippled by rickets ? Going back to the adult fairy-tale aspect everyone seems to speak in theatrical purple prose delivered in a manner you hear Russell Crowe speak when he's cast as a Briton. This is made worse by the painful fact the cast aren't up to it. I'm guessing the cast were employed due to their go-karting skills more than anything else ?

As I said the producers deserve some credit for taking £1,500 and making a movie, Not only that but they've refused to do the obvious zombie apocalypse spiel so favoured by others and have instead tried to do something different. Here's hoping they learn from their mistakes

With a 1500 pound budget what do you expect? Not bad for 1500 pounds because I think realistically we know how much decent films cost to make

Firstly - the DVD cover is a bit misleading in relation to the film inside. I will ignore that and review the film as a standalone piece.

Did you ever sift through the bargain-bins at the back of a supermarket looking for something to spend your pocket money on? Robocop remakes, cheesy westerns and unknown badly dubbed Chinese kung-fu flicks: these were the staples of those bins.

They weren't high-budget, sometimes the English translations were way off, but they were fun to watch on a Saturday afternoon when you wanted to see something new! 'Deadman Apocalypse' is throwback to these films. A future earth made uninhabitable by its denizens, led the poor to dig tunnels for the rich under the surface. This subterranean maze is populated by would-be-kings, mad-men and people racing round on suped-up go-karts.

Sounds mad? Well it is. The cover (misleading!!) makes this seem like a fairly high budgeted film, which the film itself clearly isn't. The sets may seem a little shaky, and some of the props a little ropey but this movie pays homage to the over-the-top bonkers bargain-bin movies of the past.

The acting is not what you'd see in a Hollywood blockbuster but fits this style of movie well, with the younger actors doing a particularly good job.

Go in with your eyes open (ignoring the cover), suspend your belief, and enjoy a nostalgic blast from the B-Movie past. A fun short film to pass the time on your Saturday afternoon.

I managed to endure 29 minutes of this ordeal of a movie before I gave up out of sheer and utter boredom and hopelessness!

The storyline in this movie made absolutely no sense. Apparently the world has come to an end, and people were living below the ground in tunnels that they made from wooden pallets. But for some reason they opted to make the tunnels so small that everyone had to crawl in order to get around. Yeah, I know! It made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

The characters in the movie were just as pointless and one-dimensional as the storyline. And the actors and actresses hired to portray these featureless characters, well they had virtually nothing to work with.

I am not returning to finish this movie! Not even if I were to be paid for it, because this movie was unfathomably unappealing and uninteresting.