Shock 'Em Dead

Although one might think that this movie sucks, I can truly say it kicks ass. The only problem is that Traci Lords doesn't flash us her acting ability enough. However, the storyline makes up for it in so many ways.

I have to say, I LOVED Shock em Dead!! The acting was I expected it to be... Which was poor, but this movie has so many one liners, & is soooo much fun.

You can't help but root for poor Martin, the nerd... & to see him transform & completely become the ULTIMATE rock star is the best. I love the Audition scene after he becomes "Angel". His cockiness to ol' Johnny Crack is well deserved.

This is truly a B movie, but it reigns supreme as one of my favs!!!

It's much more fun to watch if you're in a band of your own. & especially great to watch WITH your band, at 3:00AM, on the road in a motel room, & drunk!!!!!!!!!

How times have changed: back in the early 90s, I had an unhealthy obsession with horror, my Mega-Bass Walkman only played metal, and LA bad-girl Traci Lords was my pin-up of choice.

These days, I listen to my metal on an iPod!

If like me, you have a lifelong love of scary movies, get excited by the sound of a wailing guitar, and even more so by the sight of a certain impossibly pouty ex-porn star, then Shock 'Em Dead should prove to be be a suitably fun way to pass the time.

The luscious Traci Lords plays Lindsay Roberts, manager of rock band Spastic Colon, who are desperately in need of a good guitarist; when geeky pizza parlour employee Martin (Stephen Quadros) fails to impress the band with his widdling, he sells his soul to the devil in exchange for a cool new persona (he gives himself the name 'Angel'), godlike skills on a double-sided guitar (six strings are for pussies), incredible wealth, and a trio of sexy sluts to cater for his every whim. After another audition with the band, Martin gets the gig and rock-star status finally looks like it is in the bag; the only problem is, Martin must regularly feed on the life-force of others to remain alive...

A heavy rock reworking of Faust, the plot for Shock 'Em Dead isn't exactly original stuff, but although it's an oft told tale, the film still succeeds thanks to director Mark Freed's good natured, tongue-in-cheek approach to proceedings, which wisely opts to ladle on the cheese (indeed, in one scene in the pizza establishment, a whole bowlful of the stuff gets overturned) rather than to try and go for genuine scares.

During the course of the film we get some very silly rock songs (the kind of thing you might hear from parody metal band Steel Panther), plenty of boobies, some silly comedy, a few dodgy special effects (green glowing eyes and shonky transitions achieved through slow fades), and some knowingly bad performances from its game cast (which includes 50s hunk Troy Donahue, and genre regular Aldo Ray).

I give this daft slice of B-movie nonsense a very reasonable rating of 6.5/10 for being so delightfully absurd, but refuse to round it up to 7, as I would normally do, due to the complete lack of skin from Ms. Lords (she made this film only four years after giving up porn; I expected more).

I'm surprised this movie doesn't have a higher rating than it does. Horror movies about heavy metal bands are always stupid, but this one kept me entertained the whole way through. Unlike other movies like Black Roses or Hard Rock Zombies, this one was actually funny and pretty well made. Definately a good movie.

At first when I got this one I browsed through it briefly and put it back on my shelf. The super-low production values and crappy cast made me think it was going to be absolutely horrible.

When I finally viewed the movie it really put my expectations to shame. Yes, the production value is nothing to brag about, but the actors actually pull it off. Everyone is at least tolerable, and some can actually act a little bit. A lot of the acting works simply because the timing is alright.

This is true of the cutting and screenplay as well. The pacing is right there. No need to trim anything with the fast forward button. The story moves forward constantly with a great imaginative script full of well defined characters in good scenes. The scenery and cheesy rock'n'roll wardrobe and hairstyles are great as well. Most of the effects are crappy, but they are used well all the same. Some are up to the standards of a few years earlier, some to standards of many years back...

With a proper budget this would have been a big hit, for sure. The worst part of the movie is actually the misleading cover. Traci Lords is far from being the star of this one, there's at least three girls and a whole bunch of guys with more interesting roles, and the title has nothing to do with anything.

At the time of writing this movie has a rating of 3.8 on IMDb which is certainly lower than it deserves. I would have given it a 7 if the production and effects had been better. A job well done!