Dead Men Walking

What an utterly agonizing waste of film....The premise and setting are interesting and had possibilities...A virus spreads through a maximum security prison. Actually in this flick its an abandoned building on a side street. You can see cars whizzing by and the gate into the prison is a shaky mess sitting on some rollers....I suppose the money on this movie was spent on special effects which by low budget standards were OK. Although you can see some actors walk out of a room and not seem to know which way to go since its obvious they are on a set and not a real building. The characters are all stereo types we've seen before which is alright if a movie is entertaining. This one seem to lag and try and give you drama at the same time. One scene in particular which has the female lead and a victim having a heart to heart about life and stuff. God I wanted to vomit just like the zombies in this movie. The actress can actually deliver her lines believably its just she sounds like such a valley girl type that its annoying. The male actors are OK at best. The male lead is a brown haired Russell Crowe wanna be. There's also a lot of vomiting and squirming in agony as victims turn into zombies which can get a little irritable after a while. At the end of the day its an annoying, loud, badly scripted, and overly acted by some, low budget horror flick. Don't get me wrong, I love low budget horror films, but they at least have to have some appeal.

On the continuum of low budget zombie films marketed direct to video during the time frame that this was released, it is ahead of the pack. The premise works and moves the zombie theme into a new environment nicely. The film has a nice atmosphere and truly has good acting. The makeup and effects will satisfy even the most decerning zombie film conesure. Where most direct to video zombie films couldn't even get an audience to sit through them, much less get a screening at even the most remote film festival, this film would more than likely draw a crowd and have gotten good reviews. It isn't of the kind of quality that would have justified a theatrical release, but it is at the high end of video releases in it's genre.

Zombie film fans will enjoy this one...

I read all the reviews here...went into the watching of this film with the knowledge that, yes, it's low budget...yes, the actors are virtually unknown...yes, it's a B Horror Gore Fest. I was expecting the worst. (Great DVD Cover, by the way.) Despite all of that, this film is not a total train wreck. I even enjoyed it. The story line is pretty clear...straight forward. The special effects are very effective, gore, blood-vomiting and gut-eating at all the right spots. If you are a true fan of that sort of thing...this film delivers.

I've watched many badly made films and usually, when they are total train wrecks, you can't get past a certain point in the film. Eventually, you just stop watching or eject the DVD. That never happened with this one. It piqued my interest from beginning to end. I wanted to see what was going to happen next. Yes, the acting wasn't first rate, but it was good enough to move the film along nicely.

My biggest complaint is the lighting. It was too dark, too often. They used a very greenish filter on most of the scenes and sometimes it was distracting. When you notice the lighting effects too much...it can't be good. Also, the warden's young son wasn't as believable as he could have been. When their are limb-ripping, blood-covered, shrieking zombies running in every direction...you expect fear in a little kid. Instead, he mostly just stands there, looking like he was waiting for direction from the director.

So, I went in expecting the worst...and came away with an entertaining 80-something minutes. I liked it despite the flaws.

I would also like to say that I rented two films last night: This one...and The Da Vinci Code. I couldn't make it through the Da Vinci Code. This one had me entertained through the entire film. Kudos to the filmmakers. Keep pumping out these gore-fests. The fans are waiting. ;)

Dead Men Walking...

Nope, not the Sean Penn film where he plays a killer with hair so fantastic it deserved it's own billing, but a play on the prison term used when someone walks the 'Green Mile'. (Oh gosh, I watch too many films). Y'see, after a 'bio-toxin' (YAWN!) infects a guy who gets sent down, he unintentionally spreads it, and before you know it, the whole place is crammed with zombies in denim.

I speak as someone who had a passion for zombie films a long time before 28 days later and Dawn Of The Dead 04 re-fired the collective film going interest in them, but for fuggs sake, it's getting a little tedious now. It seems that everyone with a camcorder and a pot of latex is trying to make their own un-dead classic.

Me included. Bugger.

The difference between most of them and this film, is that the script, at times, struggles bravely to throw in the odd good, or believable line. The gore is pretty fun, and the whole thing almost over comes its obvious budgetary restraints to turn into something quite worthy.

Well, I liked it.

For me the movie went down the drain pretty fast after and due to the lack of scriptwriting talents few obviously infected convicts were forced to the canteen, so the hell surely broke loose. Nevertheless the idea of zombie epidemic in a high-security prison was still interesting to follow.

Apart from the script, the camera, most of the acting and especially sound work were killing the concept frame by frame. Ten repetitions of guts being pulled out of the bodies... Constant green toning of the picture, why?.. Gunshots poorly synchronized with video.. I don't know what was making me follow - I guess it was the concept itself again.

But somewhere in middle of this bad taste pride parade I was brought back to life by one totally brilliant scene. It was a shotgun slaughter with classic piano concert in the back (something from Tchaikovsky's "Seasons", I guess). It was so perfect match of time, picture and sound, although this trick is not a novelty (check e.g. The Silence of the Lambs). So while making your mind please take into account that I added one extra star for Thaikovsky.