The Burning Dead

"The Burning Dead" (also known as "Volcano Zombies") is an extremely low budget film. And, the title pretty much says it all. So, I knew going into this film that I wouldn't be seeing Masterpiece Theatre or Jane Austin!! Yup...it has what you'd expect--a lot of cheesy special effects and makeup and some occasionally broad acting. And, it's clearly for folks who like horror and don't mind it of the bargain basement variety! Now I am not saying the film is 100% bad....just mostly bad.

When the film begins, an American-Indian played by the ubiquitous Danny Trejo is telling some kids a story--and then the actual plot to this film begins. I say 'ubiquitous' because Trejo was in 17 different productions last year and is slated, so far, to be in 21. In fact, while this tough-looking guy didn't begin acting until he was almost 40, he so far has nearly 300 credits!! So did it surprise me that this Mexican-American actor was playing a Cherokee? Nah...I think he'd appear in the lead of Cinderella if they offered it to him! He hammed it up a bit during his small portion in the film, though I always enjoy seeing him...even in schlocky films like this one. To paraphrase Liberace--you might laugh...but Trejo is probably laughing himself all the way to the bank!

Trejo's story is about zombies who are vaporized during the 1840s. And, oddly, when the same volcano becomes active again today, these zombies are reconstituted by the evil volcano spirits and they set about doing what zombies do best--slowly chasing after folks who seem to inexplicably fall down and get devoured. None of this is especially inspired--especially in light of the hundred bazillion zombie TV shows and movies over the last decade. Here is the real problem though--it was bad but not bad or cheesy enough to be a film for a bad film junkie who wants to laugh at the film. Additionally, had the film not taken itself so seriously and been more like some of Sam Raimi's or George Romero's zombie films, it might have worked. As it is, there just isn't enough to recommend it.

Despite all my reservations about the film, however, I am giving it a special award for 'The Most Ludicrous Nude Scene of the Past Decade'. As the volcano is belching smoke and getting ready to blow, an insane but very shapely lady appears near the crater with her camera and starts to take some candid topless photos of herself with the volcano as a backdrop!! Rarely have I ever seen a more contrived and asinine way to insert a bit of nudity into a movie!

The acting, writing, editing, and production of this film is so terrible that it almost seems on purpose. How they want anyone to take this movie seriously is beyond me. A lava eruption that looks like fireworks, lava that looks like a blanket being dragged across the ground, and actors that look like they all failed the class and the casting directors felt sorry for them and gave them a shot, this film has it all. Words cannot describe the absolute crapfest that is "The Burning Dead"

THE BURNING DEAD is a terrible movie... no doubt about it. It has 2,2 and only few reviews to date, so it will never make the Bottom 100, yet I saw it. And you might wonder why. Well, I am a movie lover that despite has mostly rated and occasionally reviewed must-see movies, theater releases, masterpieces and so on and so forth, I occasionally try very bad movies just for seeing if they have an entertainment value. Some, they have it (such as STEEL, DELTA FARCE and a few others to which I gave good scores despite the many negative reviews) but some are just plain bad. And THE BURNING DEAD is one of these.

It begins with Indian chief Night Wolf (Danny Trejo) that tells some kids a legend at night in the woods about some zombies that returned to live after the volcano erupted lava. Just a few minutes later we see a family going on vacation on the site and after a while there is an eruption, and just as the legend said, the zombies returned to life thanks to the lava's powers on the ground. Now it's up to the kids and Night Wolf to kick the zombies' snot, and not without some graphic scenes thrown for shock value.

I wanted to give this film a chance but unfortunately my hopes were wrong. The characters were all one-dimensional and more like cartoon characters than real people. Danny Trejo is the only one who gives a decent performance (just like in most of his other bad movies) but he looks a bit wasted. The special effects are very cheesy, they really look like copied and pasted on the original footage. And some of the graphic scenes were very painful to stomach, but thankfully I forgot most of them.

If you are a bad movie fan, you might actually try this movie for getting a kick out of it, but if you aren't, steer clear from this piece of bile...

This made me laugh more than anything else.

Bad. Bad. Bad.

Special effects were terrible as was the acting. Danny Trejo, I have no idea why he is in all these bad movies, but even so his ability as an actor is not what you would call award winning!.

Rene Pere, well this was the movie to make me steer away from anything else that he directs. I know of other directors who can create wonderful movies with great dialogues and story lines but this film? What a waste of time and money.

I, myself would be embarrassed to show this work to the public.

Apart from bad acting and bad effects, there were numerous errors within the movie which made you laugh. Did anyone review the movie for inconsistencies?

I suppose fans of B grade movies will enjoy this. Actually, maybe we create a Z Grade category for films which are worse than worse!

In North California, the scientist Dr. Stevens (Kyle T. Heffner) and his assistant Eve Jones (Julia Lehman) are researching a volcano near eruption to evacuate the residents. Meanwhile, Mindy Roberts (Moniqua Plante), her daughter Nicole (Nicole Cummins) and her boyfriend Ryan (Kevin Norman) are visiting Mindy's estranged father Old Ben (Robert F. Lyons), who lives in an isolated cabin on the top of the mountain. Sheriff Denton (Thomas Downey) is rescuing persons that might have been left behind. Out of the blue, each person discovers that volcano zombies are attacking them on the mountain to eat their flesh. Who will survive?

"The Burning Dead" is a lame Z-movie, with awful story, terrible acting and poor CGI. The screenplay is a laughable mess, and does not make any sense. What can be said about a film where Danny Trejo has a minor participation to give his name to the credits? My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): "Mortos Vivos" ("Living Dead")