Raiders of the Living Dead

An eerie film, not really too much in the way of horror. It is suspenseful. There is not much gore at all, actually I can only think of one person being devoured. It had some interesting plot points. If you are an avid collector of Zombie movies you will like this flick.

Raiders Of The Living Dead is rather infamous and widely considered to be one of the worst zombie movies ever made. I can confidently say, I agree.

It's right there with The Zombinator (2012) and Hsien Of The Dead (2012) It wants so badly to be a Return Of The Living Dead movie but fails every stage of the way.

The plot is bare bones and is pretty terrible, the movie is full of incredible amounts of filler scenes, the soundtrack is laughable and there are barely even any zombies anyway.

Raiders Of The Living Dead would certainly fall into my bottom 100 movies ever made, it has not one single redeeming feature and was a chore to endure.

The Good:

Nope

The Bad:

CGI is awful

Loads of blatant filler scenes

Questionable soundtrack

Too few zombies for a zombie movie

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

The 3 Stooges scene was more entertaining than anything the movie creators did

As an avid Zombie movie fan, I bought this with hi-hopes of fun, gore and shambling ghouls. I got a shambling movie, no gore, and no fun (with the exception of the kid-hero frying his hamster with a laser gun (made from a cunningly converted laser disc player). That alone saved the movie from a score of 1. On the whole it looks like school kids on a budget of their accumulated paper-round savings put the movie together.

Even as a self confessed zombie fan I could only watch it once. In need of a second opinion I handed it on to another zombie fan. He watched it once too; then threw it in the bin for me.

I've seen some God awful films in my time but this must rate as one of the most dull, then again, there was 'Zombie Aftermath.'

The story as Zombie films go is not particularly offensive, we've got the typical out of town reporter investigating some strange goings on in a run down chemical plant that's become a bit of an urban myth around town. But you know you're in trouble when any 'horror' film begins with an overlong montage sequence of stills from the video cover accompanied by a cheezy eighties soft-rock theme tune. Things only deteriorate from then on. The opening sequence is immensely shaky, with lumbering actors (no, these are not the ones playing the zombies,) crusty library music, jerky camerawork, little dialogue, (though when you actually hear the 'actors,' and I use the term loosely here, it's understandable,) and along with ploddy editing, the whole thing appears clearly worse than it already is. The Direction is so poor in fact, it had me reaching for the box to read the blurb on the back to possibly find out what the hell was going on.

Soon we're 'treated' to a Swat team shoot out (I wonder where they got that idea from?) but it appears no one told any of the cast, because they look like they're rehearsing for a school play. And it's understandable going by the crappy props they're given to 'shoot' with. It's hard not to be critical when a film reeks as bad as this one. Just when things don't look like they can get any worse the story line introduces some irritating school kids who start building Laser guns (ooh how fifties,) from their broken CD players, to help in the fight against the undead. Oh and the laser effects are truly amazing, the FX crew ought to be knighted, and perhaps given crayons instead of the felt pins they obviously used for the film, just in case they injure themselves, or horror upon horror, work on another film! Obviously the creators of this thought they'd make a quick buck from a genre that doesn't necessarily need a lot of capital to produce. But here the cutting of corners and cheapness of the whole production is painfully evident.

Those hoping for a cheap but entertaining zombie outing ought to look elsewhere because 'Raiders...' provides about as much entertainment as watching paint dry. Try instead Jorge Grau's highly recommended 'Don't Open the Window' (known as 'The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue' in the U.K.) or J.W. Bookwalter's rewarding cheapo 'The Dead Next Door.'

Buyers or renters beware, IVS U.K. have put together a half decent cover with clever packaging (unlike the one pictured above) that seems very reminiscent of early 'Evil Dead' and 'Return of the Living Dead' releases that will perhaps lure a few curious but misguided horror fans, but take it from me this was one film I (and many others no doubt,) could have done without seeing.

"Raiders of the Living Dead" is a low-budget zombie rip-off that is inexplicably and consistently interesting; if nothing else, it has imagination and innovation on its side. A reporter and his partner scope out an ominous locale in the dead of night and stumble upon zombies. A child genius works on his doctor grandfather's laserdisc player and winds up creating a laser. And a zombified Scott Schwartz (the kid from "A Christmas Story"?) hijacks a truck for no reason and tries to blow up a nuclear power plant, only to be claimed by the zombie menace. While slow in spots, and sporting more of a 1980s look than a Sears catalog, "Raiders" exists in some weird limbo between "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things," "Burial Ground," "Return of the Living Dead II," and even "Zeder" (the climax takes place in an abandoned prison). Is it a masterpiece of cinema? Certainly not, and perhaps my generous "5" rating is due to the fact that I watched the atrocious "Reefer Madness" earlier today. Still, it is a diverting item with OK makeup effects, a cheeky attitude, and a toe-tapping, synth-heavy theme song.