Dead Men Walking

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. ;)

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.

Ever since the release of the highly overrated '28 Days Later', there's been a steady stream of low budget zombie movies being released; and I've been disappointed with most of them. The reason for this, mostly, is that the vast majority have too much humour about them, and although it is difficult to take a movie about the dead returning to life and feasting on the living seriously; things such as dancing zombies are, quite frankly, lame. It was a relief, then, that this film takes itself seriously; and the result is a gory, and loving tribute to the classic zombie films made by genre-icon George A. Romero. It's Day of the Dead that is this film's main focus, but tributes to the other films in the series shine through; as well as a few nods to other genre classics. The plot follows a zombie outbreak, which ends up in a prison after the sole survivor is arresting while trying to dispatch his friends who ended up catching the virus. The prison is maximum security, and this proves a big problem for the guards who become the hunted after their prisoners succumb to the deadly virus.

Before seeing this film, I thought that the prison setting may hinder the movie; but actually, it's definitely an advantage. The closed setting allow the film to present a constantly foreboding atmosphere, as we know that the characters are trapped with the living dead; and it also means that the movie doesn't spoil itself by trying to be too clever. Gore is present by the bucket load, which is sure to please zombie fans; but the action itself is a bit of a turn off as it happens mostly in slow motion. The first half of the film sees the plot build, and while it's not exactly deep; Dead Men Walking sets itself up nicely, and in true Day of the Dead style; the climax is full on action and gore. There's a little too much intestine ripping (I didn't hear the words "Choke on 'em!", though), but mostly the gut-munching is pleasing to the eye. Dead Men Walking looks and feels like it's been made for TV, which is a bit of a shame as either better production values, or a more low budget style would have served it better - but on the whole, I'd definitely take this film over most of the recent zombie flicks without a second thought.

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.

The DVD cover art somewhat suggests a Dawn of the Dead type story.

So if you look at the cover art and are somewhat interested in checking it out... go ahead. I'm not a fan of over the top, low budget gore, but this is one of those films that makes fans of horror wish they could get some kind of budget to make a movie with their friends.

Surprisingly creepy.

The plot is the standard infection loosed in a maximum security prison.

In a bare bones prison environment Dark, frenetic, fast motion scenes when zombies attack, and (I have to admit) pretty gruesome dismemberment scenes.

The Romero movies seem kind of sanitized compared to this.

So in a nutshell, if you like zombie horror movies and you pick this up and have to think "Should I take a chance"?, go ahead.

Sissy.