Deadlands: The Rising

First it was Pittsburgh, then Louisville, Ky, and now Baltimore, MD has fallen to the army of the dead in Gary Ugarek's Deadlands: The Rising.

When George Romero gave us Night of the Living Dead it was a type of horror movie never seen before, taking the zombie monster and converting it into a cannibalistic killer capable of no emotion or remorse, making it one of the most terrifying monsters in cinema history. Today countless filmmakers have copied or tried to mimic the zombie paradox, some have succeeded and some have flat out failed, but every now and again, in the countless indie zombie horror films, a diamond in the rough that peaks out to grab the attention of zombie film lovers the world over.

Deadlands is that diamond. Although very low budget, and with flaws in hand, it has a great 80's movie vibe with a realistic feel and some nice gore, not too mention scenes building suspense are done quite well and the films score is eerily effective and felt in the vein of John Carpenter's musical styling.

Zombies are what people want and they will eventually get once they progress through the story of Deadlands. The films plays the angle of an average day turning into the nightmare from hell and although the acting leaves a lot to be desired you can easily see the direction Ugarek was taking when constructing the films story. One thing I want too mention as well is how Ugarek shares a similar trait as Romero, they both like to give the audience a little political commentary in their films. Romero's Land of the Dead had a more in your face approach with the political sub plot whereas Ugarek kept his more subtle and he played on the events surrounding not only 9/11 but hurricane Katrina as well.

Deadlands single biggest problem is a very slow start. The first zombie did not appear on screen until the 22:00 mark, but once the dead begin to walk and the blood begins to flow this is where Deadlands takes off and soars. Deadlands is also a little on the short side. The films total running time is about 62:56 seconds, but the actual film and story end at about the 57:00 mark leaving nearly 6 minutes for the closing credits, which has one of the catchiest medleys of the entire films score remixed into one song.

I cannot close of this review without giving props to the make-up department. Deadlands didn't go gore crazy, but what carnage does exist is done effectively and on the meager funds Ugarek mentions in the commentary make-up FX supervisor Stephanie Petagno knows how to make the money stretch.

Deadlands is probably one of the better indie zombie efforts I have seen in a long time and I feel it is up there with the big boys. If the crew of this film can pull this off for less than $20,000 imagine what they could do with $20,000,000.

7 out of 10

At a bare minimum, Gary Ugarak's film stands out as an example of innovation trumping limitation. It's brisk (a little over an hour), and the production deficiencies are more than obvious (note the different video quality from shot to shot during some of the large scale scenes). But the fundamental story of a zombie apocalypse is so nicely rendered that one can't help but smile. The performances aren't particularly natural, but the film doesn't waste a moment of screen time.

There's not a whole lot of original content, but Ugarak's execution makes up for it. Deadlands is a worthy addition to the genre of the undead.

Flamers need to lighten up and give credit where due.

Being an army brat for so many years had me living all over the world and trust when I say, "I have seen my fair share of bad movies". However, what I don't get is what people hate about this film. Have any of you seen any other low budget independent zombies films? I would assume not or I wouldn't be reading some of the forum comments I have read, nor would I have read the two poor comments/reviews left for the film.

Lets be honest this film isn't a perfect 10, no film really is, but this films is a solid 6/7 all the way. Take into consideration the budget and what was pulled off, this is easily one of the better zombies films to come from the underground in years. It has its moments of being a tad slow, and it has its moments of being spot on.

Before I even watched this I had my doubts, I then read a few reviews, one being from Canada's very own horror-movies.ca. I also read the bad reviews at Cinematical and Bloody-Disgusting, and I can say this easily, the bad reviews don't have a clue. From reading the reviewers comments you can tell the film was slagged off as a waste of their time as they are too busy trying to scoop the next Hollywood horror blockbuster. This is where word of mouth has to come into play, and I will set you all straight. This is a decent zombie project and if you are a true zombie fan you will love it or like it, there is no hate, unless you don't like running zombies.

This was good effort, even if the acting is poor at times, and the film really comes together as it progresses. This is definitely not one of those films where you need to care about characters, it is just a ride along of sorts that honors all the best things there is to honor in the zombie genre.

6.8 out of 10

First off this is a bro film, a bro his buddy's lots of buddies a camera and a script. Starting off I don't know where the movie stats they have this big half hour monologue about the war and what caused the zombies but its just a bunch of fat people going hunting no zombies. Finally we see police and soldiers goateed hab shab uniformed sent out to protect the shelter. Well didn't the screenwriter have a buddy in the army or something who could've added some jargon? Even Tucker MAX (I hope they served beer in hell/assholes finish first) bragged about his soldier buddies calling people cock-holsters. Here the police preach to the soldiers about deadly force. No soldiers call it R.O.E rules of engagement; the police call it use of force. Anyhow the zombie make up is black and white. The movie fails to deal with man dealing with man during the outbreak its just fat zombies running around. I did like the camera work, felt like you were confused and in the middle of it.

I recently watched this film after trading a friend my Stink of Flesh DVD for Deadlands: The Rising, and I will admit I received the better deal.

First, Deadlands is no masterpiece of low budget indie cinema, but what it is, is a zombie film which is entertaining, gory, and fun. Indie zombie films get a lot of bad rap, as does indie cinema in general. So many people are used to the polished Hollywood look and feel that when someone attempts a reality based horror film it easily gets looked over. Deadlands is one of those films that takes all the glamour out of film-making and firmly grounds it in reality.

Deadlands is no masterpiece. It's weak spots lie in the acting, an entire unknown cast with little experience, but it is far from horrible. The editing on the film is decent and the soundtrack is superb. The music builds a lot of great tension and fits this film perfectly. Many applause to the composers for the music in the film. The zombies are of the running type, but the film also shows the shambling George Romero type zombies as well and to be honest the mix of fast and slow works well with the film. The zombie attacks are fast and brutal, the best of which is the traffic jam of evacuees swallowed up by hundreds of zombies catching them in every direction they try to escape. That scene is an edge of your seat experience all by itself. Deadlands only other fault is the running time which is just under 70 minutes.

The two other most outstanding things about Deadlands, besides the music, was shot selection and set pieces. You can easily tell the filmmakers were aiming for an epic size film and they pulled it off to an extent.

Don't let the meager budget keep you from checking this out, especially if you are a zombie film fan. This is one for every zombie fans' collection.

7 stars out 0f 10 stars, deducting 3 stars for running time(wish it had been 20 minutes longer) and the acting.