Dead Above Ground

while this movie is marketed at a horror film, let me just say right out that is in fact the exact opposite. it is so funny in its awfulness. you know how ed wood movies are funny because they are so bad? well dead above ground is right up there. you can tell that the crew had good intentions of making a scary movie but it is so forced and benign. actually the movie is quite painful to watch at first. i finished it floored and amazed at the stupidity of it all. Cliché characters, zero plot continuity, unrealistic dialogue, cheesy special effects... it's got it all. BUT after watching it again, this time with a group of friends... it has now become one of our most quoted movies! As a group, we found it hysterical! It is so rotten, it's fantastic! Who could forget such memorable lines as, "KABOOM! Coach scores!" or "Stop laughing! You're all dead above ground!" A ridiculous portrayal of goth kids, an inept tough-guy cop with feathered hair, a completely unromantic 5 second sex scene, and a cliff-hanger ending! What's great is we still sit around talking about how much we hate this movie yet we still talk about it! Prepare for hilarity with this piece of cinema!

This film is awful, however you've gotta see it to believe it!

Stephen J. Cannell & Chuck Bowman should be ashamed of themselves!

The whole plot was trashy, I have seen better acting in The A Team. The only thing that really saves the movie is Lisa Ann Hadley's beauty.

Basically, rent it but don't buy it!

After the death of troubled Goth student Jeff Lucas a series of mysterious and brutal murders rock a small coastal town. As a massive horror/slasher fan I recently came across a cheap copy of this on DVD & had not heard of it before. Despite it's obvious low budget it starts off with a pretty cool opening sequence. Sadly it then goes downhill with it's poor script, bad acting ( in particular the guy playing the investigating sergeant), silly seance scenes & predictable plot. Its also tame in the gore department. Having said that it does falls into the so bad that it's slightly entertaining category. Check it out if you're an obsessive slasher fan like me, otherwise best avoided.

This could possibly be the worst B film that has ever made it to print. What was Stephen J. Cannell thinking? Aside from the fact that not one person in the film can act and the characters are limited caricatures of most other B movie characters, the plot lacked anything substantial. There wasn't even a worthy death in this film and it does little to appreciate the "Celtic ways". I can't believe I let it take 98 minutes of my life. Don't let it "kill" 98 of yours. :O) Heck, even Antonio's looks did nothing to save the film. Distributors should have given it the "ax". The writer & director should have prayed to the powers that be for forgiveness before the entire genre laughs them out of the industry.

Stephen Cannell?! The man behind the A-Team? And my favorites "Rip Tide" and "Wiseguy"? This... TURKEY... is an example of what the poorest written low-budget horror film would look like. I mean, a team of monkeys could do better than this.

I've seen many, many horror flicks, and this rates so far down there. It's completely unwatchable. I mean, there's no payoff anywhere. It's an insult to view. Even worse that George Lucas was drawn into this for no reason. Worse, the acting, characters, story, dialog, plot, and everything else just suck, suck, suck.

On the positive side, if you're looking to make a horror film yourself, view this film to see how NOT to do it. If you have an idea that's even a little better than this one, you can be one- up on Cannell himself. Speaking of which, WHY was he even in this film? He looked like this old dude in a film that presents a plot SO implausible... it's an insult. To whit: the coach gets fired, yet hangs around the parking lot to harass a teacher (Cannell), and he doesn't do anything about it. The best part of the film is Sabato, Jr, though you have to wonder why he had anything to do with this piece of detritus.

The original title was "Director's Cut", and according to Cannell's website the movie would allow them to "experiment with new narrative ideas, visual styles and different approaches to editing". Also on the website "We were really stepping out," said Bowman. "So we needed to keep absolute creative control." Uh, yeah. Just promise me never, EVER do it again.