Storm of the Dead

This film essentially begins with a Category 5 hurricane slamming into the state of Florida and leaving complete devastation in its wake. Therefore, to prevent massive looting and other problems of that sort, the Florida Militia has been called upon to patrol certain areas that have been especially hard hit. To that extent, the scene then shifts to a squad of militiamen tracking a looter through the swamp and eventually catching up to him near a small house that has mysteriously sustained no damage from the storm. A shootout soon takes place and the looter is killed. What the militiamen don't realize, however, is that they have just killed the grandson of a woman with formidable skills in voodoo and their action will soon have disastrous consequences for everyone involved. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this film had a couple of rather obvious flaws which included a poorly written script and some really bad acting. Admittedly, Karin Justman (as "Lisa Hicks") performed well enough and she certainly didn't hurt the scenery in any way either. But even so, her presence wasn't enough to really overcome the faults just mentioned and I have rated this movie accordingly. Below average.

Look, this isn't going to win any Oscars, but i don't think thats what they were going for. I checked this out because i love low budget films, especially zombie flicks. Some of the reviews on here and around the net pick apart the movie for being exactly what it was meant to be! Its supposed to be entertaining and fun, and if you like this sort of thing, then give it a chance. I thought it was hokey, but in a good way. The cast was great and the acting not bad! The story was interesting enough and for the most part i really enjoyed relaxing and watching this movie. The people who did this one have put out some very entertaining low budget movies and have always entertained me.

I quite like bad horror movies – but only if they're bad in an entertaining kind of way. Unfortunately, there's very little to entertain in 'Storm of the Dead'. Instead, it's boring and poorly paced, with a thin plot meandering through an hour and a half of film when it could probably have fitted nicely into a short.

The film's writer/director has posted a review, which is interesting to read in terms of the thought process behind different aspects of the movie. In particular, he noted that five minutes of Just Plain Walking Around was added to plump up the film to meet international length standards. In my opinion, that's just lazy film-making, and an insult to the viewers who are forced to sit through that five minutes of filler.

That said, I was quite impressed by J. Todd Smith (Hutch), who was definitely the highlight of the movie. Karin Justman (Lisa) was also decent. In contrast, Brian Renner (Red) was supposed to be providing comic relief, but instead provided poor delivery that made me cringe every time he spoke.

Not a film I'd recommend by any means, but there's possibly something in there for people who like their horror slow-paced.

This is the second viewing of this film for me. I watched as part of the Catacomb of Creepshows box set and previously watched this on the Movies for Men channel (in the UK). What can I say I am a glutton for punishment !!!

Having said this, Storm of the dead is not too bad. The Florida Military are deployed to stop the looting after a hurricane. A man is shot dead for looting essential supplies, like baby food and nappies. His Grandmother is a local voodoo priestess and she vows to avenge his death.

This starts off well with director Bob Clark actually reporting from what looks like a Hurricane, I found this to be quite effective. It then moves on to stock footage of the aftermath of real hurricanes, again, this sets the tone for the film well.

The story itself is not a bad one and there is some social commentary about the social divide in America (As I am British I presume there are similar divisions in the states as the UK). I would agree with fellow reviewers there is a lot of the running time spent on people wandering around and the biggest problem for me was the title makes it sound like a zombie film, well there is only one. But hey, perhaps that is what the film-maker intended or perhaps he was restricted by budget (or both!!). Overall I have seen better, but also I have seen many more worse than this and found myself quite liking it.

The lead actor J. Todd Smith gave a solid performance.

At the time of writing this is only scoring 2.2 on the IMDb and I would rate this higher than that. I gave it a 4.

With a title like Storm Of The Dead you naturally expect a zombie flick, this isn't.

Immediately I found myself a tad uncomfortable as the film opens with a series of news reports about a storm raging across the Caribbean and hitting Florida which is exactly what's happening in real life at time of writing.

Once I'd gotten past the shock of that I gave this story about a militia search and rescue mission gone wrong a try and was confused at the absence of zombies.

The story culminates quite well and is fairly interesting, but the route there is slow and poorly constructed.

Storm of The Dead is hyper low budget make no mistake, but I feel they still could have done a lot more with the material.

The Good:

Some nice ideas

Some interesting characters

The Bad:

A bit deceptive

Amateurishly made

Very slow burner

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

If you have the choice between travelling on land or wading through a swamp was then do the latter, especially when chasing someone