Vengeance of the Dead

A tidy horror/thriller from Wisconsin filmmakers Adams and Picardi with lots of twists and turns and many offbeat touches. A young guy goes to visit his grandpa down on the farm, and soon is spending those soft summer nights sleepwalking and torching elderly neighbors, apparently coaxed/goaded along by some restless ghosts. I watched the DVD, which was chock-full of cool extras about the filmmakers and their projects. VENGEANCE OF THE DEAD is what solid b-movie filmmaking looks like.

At the start of this movie you see a car driving down a deserted road. It looked like it was shot on a Camcorder. Nothing much happens until 40 minutes. Then there a couple of murders. This is the vengeance of the dead. At 50 minutes a guy checks out his grand daughter in the shower (she is 20 something). He gets it but why? He has not murdered anyone so why are the dead taking their vengeance out on him?

This movie is dull. It is badly shot. The story is muddled and confusing. On a plus side the music is sombre throughout and is good for a horror movie. Sorry about the formatting issues IMDb no longer allows shot reviews so I have to faff around with the formatting.

The UK DVD has only one extra. That being a trailer for the movie. It would have been really good if the directors commentary for the movie. Then I could have found out more about the movie and it might have made sense. So in the Uk the prism DVD is bare bones.

Poor production values and a plot that is stretched way too thin to support a feature length film (even one with a tight running time of 72 minutes) undermine some interesting ideas and sometimes effective direction from independent writer/directors Don Adams and Harry James Picardi.

Their one dimensional story of a teen possessed by the vengeful ghosts of a murdered family plays out in a far too predictable fashion and provides too few answers to some burning questions (Why have the ghosts waited so long to seek revenge? What is the relevance of the spoon?), and any genuine moments of originality and inventiveness are overwhelmed by risible dialogue, shoddy video effects and amateurish acting.

A creepy moment early on, involving the ghost of a little girl on a swing, proves that the guys can create atmosphere and deliver an effective scare when necessary, and a delightfully twisted scene in which a pervy old man spies on his granddaughter in the shower earns them points for being willing to push the envelope, but to really do their ideas justice in future, Adams and Picardi really need to drum up some more cash for that professional finish and get themselves a decent cast.

A young man travels to his grandfathers house, finds an old spoon and soon starts to have visions of a brutal murder. Before you know it Eric (Galvin) is guided by a ghostly force to kill a bunch of old men.

I didn't expect much from VOTD when I popped in the DVD player, but by the end I was pleasantly surprised. VOTD turns out to a be a competently made and interesting low budget flick that I got into. Writer/director Don Adams and Harry Picardi show alot of potential here and could have done much better with more money and a cast of professional actors. They give us some cool moments and use the DV camera in some pretty interesting ways. The acting isn't great and the sound and picture quality is pretty bad. It runs a little too long for its own good and drags along the way. By the middle of the flick I figured out what the twist was, but in the end it still disturbed me and I felt fulfilled. VOTD is an original little flick with alot of good qualities in its favor.

Vengeance Of The Dead has its problems, but is a solid flick with alot of potential. Its a valiant effort all around, but would have benefited from a tighter script, a bigger budget, and professional actors. I still recommend you check it out. I've seen much bigger flicks that have been much worse.

DVD Details: Trailers, director commentary, teaser and making of War Wolf (Adam and Picardi's next flick). The picture is very grainy and the sound quality is pretty bad. Not a good DVD transfer.

It's quite tragic when a fresh idea gets thrown out in the form of a horrific film, but this movie delivers just that. While the underlying plot is actually quite intriguing and original, the movie is simply so poorly made that one cannot forgive the creators. The opening dialogoue between the two main characters is a perfect example of what you're getting into when you view this film. You can't even understand what the two men are saying. The picture quality is worse than a fifty year old second-hand camera. The acting is horrible, the scripting is horrible, the camera work is horrible.. The movie is horrible. Don't waste your time, money, or eyesight.