Dead 7

Successfully pop-writers do not always make the best comedy-horror writers, and "Dead 7" proves that. Written by and starring Backstreet Boy's member Nick Carter this film found its way to audiences thanks to the Asylum and KaOtic Production companies - you know, the same Asylum that brought audiences the "Sharknado" films. With that in mind, before sitting down to watch this I had low expectations - but they were not quite low enough.

The zombie apocalypse occurred. Humanity reverted to a simpler way of living, which in this case is like the Wild West crossed with Mad Max. A woman called Apocalypta (Debra Wilson) trains zombies as her army and then starts to send them out to destroy the town of Harper's Junction. Some residents flee while others create a fighting resistance. The resistance fighters, which includes Billy (Jeff Timmons), his girlfriend Daisy (Carrie Keagan), his brother Jack (Nick Carter), and Whiskey Joe (Joey Fatone), try to save the town but will ultimately have to take the fight to the Apocalypta.

This low-budget film is a bit of a mess. The tone of the film feels wrong, it can't decide if it's a western or something more modern. Rather than picking one style it tries to jump between them and it gets more annoying than it is confusing. Occasionally over exposed shots, occasionally tinted yellow, occasional clear shot, all contribute the tone being mixed up and confused.

The plot is really basic and didn't do much to keep me entertained - while Nick Carter wanted to have a bash at starring and writing a film, maybe he should have stuck to writing music. The writing that does not help the plot also makes the characters and dialogue poor too - to be fair it cannot be blamed entirely on Nick Carter because Sawyer Perry was employed as a screenwriter too - it takes two to tango. I did not care for any of the characters, they came across as wooden and 2 dimensional. It felt like failed amateur dramatics, at times very cheesy, and other times completely stale.

In some films, a badly written character can be saved by a great acting performance. I can assure you that this is something that the film is missing too. The ensemble of actors in the film do have plenty of experience in pop-music and being in music videos, but when it comes to proper acting it is obvious that it was a struggle for them. The performances did not carry much emotional weight and annoyingly from one scene to the next accents would change for no reason - as if the actors forgot which accent, they started the film with. This film brings you not just one Backstreet Boy, but three of them. They are not alone and pop fans of the late 1990's and early 2000's may also recognise members of 98 Degrees, N*Sync, O-Town, Everclear, Crazy Town, No Authority, Atlas Genius, and All-4-One.

Do not expect Earth-shattering SFX of CGI in this film. Id' be lying if I said that the zombies looked convincing, and the action was made to look visually stunning. Likewise, the set and staging is pretty bad too. All in all, this is a bad film - admittedly it is not the worst film I have ever seen, but it's a bad film that I won't be in a rush to watch again or recommend. This is not one of the better films that Asylum and KaOtic have produced, and this SyFy channel original might as well crawl back to the shadows where it belongs. 89 minutes of my life I'll never get back.

OK guys....I really wanted to like this, cause I like zombie movies and boy bands were my jam (and still occasionally are-especially backstreet boys and even spoke to AJ on the phone once (thanks to my sister and her ex husband-her ex went to school with AJ). I got most of the way through before turning it off. I have never written a movie review on IMDb before. I get the comedy aspect, for it to not be taken seriously, some of the acting was decent, but some other times....I felt like a bad porno from the 70s-80s was about to break out. There was no story line really, it was a mishmosh of different story lines and one of the scenes with AJ, why did he have to act like bad imitation Captain Jack Sparrow? That kinda ruined it for me in the beginning. And the lighting is all off balance and too washed out a lot. I'll probably watch it again and give it another shot when I don't have anything else to watch.

Btw, I used to love the SyFy channel, that channel used to be awesome and started going downhill, so I hoped this movie would be somewhat decent and bring the channel back to a little bit of it's former glory.

But seriously guys, please stick with singing, if you guys are going to act again, please don't act like one of those awful movies on the Max Movie Channels after 11-12. I can't take it and makes me either want to laugh or vomit. I know Joey is good-I love him Greek Wedding 1 and 2. Howie and Nick were semi decent.

I would never want to put anyone down and if you want to continue making movies, we'll be there for you to help cheer you on for your dreams.

The title of this movie matches perfectly. Everything from the dialogue, script, plot, acting, and even the tone of the film is dead. From the very start, the tone and vibe of this movie feels off. What should feel like a Western movie, somehow comes off as a mixture of the modern and past, but failing as if it doesn't know which one it's trying to be. In the end, it's really neither, and just a movie with low budget sets that don't fit the feel of the movie whatsoever. Not only do the sets feel out of place, the entire feel of the movie does too. It's set in a post-apocalyptic world, and yet they still have vehicles and a few other modern devices. Why is this set up like a Western then? It's all over the place.

Aside from the tone and feel of the movie being off, the writing is atrocious. Nick Carter should stick to writing songs, because the only thing about this movie that was good was the song they all sang together for the credits. The plot is so weak, that you're not even sure what it is. There is a villain, but there is so little back story on every character in this film, that it's nonexistent. It seems like some cheap story a five year old tried to write up for a class assignment, and even a five year old could probably write better.

Beyond that, the acting is darn right awful. Aside from small notes like AJ McLean, whose Johnny Vermillion character probably brought the most to the table, the other actors are just horrible. Even then, the only amusement he offers is his funny laugh throughout that sounds like Batman's Joker has asthma. Otherwise, everyone in this movie is horrific. Facial expressions are absent, while dialogue is off and completely weak. Nothing in this movie fits the way it should.

Everything felt forced and some of the plots seemed to be Nick Carter's idea of wish fulfillment. Maybe he would have fulfilled his deepest desires if he could actually play a decent lead, but instead his one-liners are something left to be desired, and you WANT him to die in this movie, just like every other character. Of course, that's within the first five minutes of the film, and sadly not everyone is introduced within the first five minutes, but you want them dead anyways. They're THAT bad once they come onto the screen.

All in all, this movie isn't even a decent B movie. It's just idiotic and a waste of time. Seriously, these boy band members should have just teamed up for the song, or went on tour together and made a band called Dead 7, because their only talent is singing.

disclaimer: gave up about 15 minutes in

What I watched of this movie was just bad movie-making.

Maybe it's supposed to be a caricature of spaghetti westerns and/or zombie movies.

The director apparently never heard of "show, don't tell" as a storytelling technique. The opening sequence is just awful - over acted, over-explained, over-graded.

The next 2 sequences look like they were shot on a handycam and not graded at all ... there's no cinematic feel to any of the shots

I gave up at that point. Maybe if I'd waited a few more minuted I'd have found someone in the story to become invested in... but I wasn't prepared to waste anymore time on it...

Your Mileage May Vary

If you think that a bunch of 1990's boy-band singers getting together to make a zombie/western movie in 2016 was a bad idea, you'd be right. It looks and sounds exactly like what you'd imagine; just awful.

Looking at the disparity in the votes between male and female on this one makes me think a large number of women, who were about 14 in 1995, checked in to scope out their old crushes, and they still have a thing for them (it would explain all the "10" votes for this). Nothing wrong with old infatuations, but I think their fond memories of these guys had them overlooking some very big flaws in Dead 7.

A good screenplay is the basis for any good film, and good actors are needed to get those words effectively on screen. This movie has neither of those things. In fact, this is just tough to watch all the way through. There is nothing here to draw your interest. No sympathetic characters, no witty banter, not even any fancy CGI. I'm not a big fan of desaturated color in films either, and Dead 7 really overdoes it. If you want to take that much color out of a film, just make a black and white movie.

The point is, unless you were a huge fan of the Backstreet Boys, 'NSync, O-Town or 98 Degrees, you're just wasting your time watching this.