I'm going to start things off with a movie review. I watched this movie few days ago and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.
I love SyFy channel original movies. Savage Planet, Swamp Devil, Mothman, Raptor Island, etc, they epitomize bad movies and I love them for it. Every now and then, though, they turn out something better. Never great, mind you, but better. I though Mothman was decent enough, and D&D 2: Wrath of the Dragon God was, strangely, much better that the first, big budget film. And then there's Dead and Deader. This one really surprised me. It's about a soldier (played by Dean Cain) who's squad dies, and are brought back to the US for autopsies- but Cain's character, Lt. Bobby Quinn, wakes up. Not that he comes back to life, he's still dead, but he can function as a normal human. The rest of his squad, though come back to life as more typical, ravenous zombies and Quinn, the base's cook (Guy Torry), and a film student-bartender (Susan Ward) have to stop the spread of the infection.
Aside from the awesome idea of a zombie fighting other zombies, this movie isn't your typical SyFy film (in case I haven't mentioned that already). The acting is pretty good, better than, say... most of their output, the effects are pretty good, the story's alright, and a lot of the jokes are actually pretty funny. The problem I had with the effects is towards the end, there are several shots of zombies shambling down a hall. Aside from the fact that they may have used it more than once (I can't quite recall), it looked to my admittedly untrained eye to have been sped up. It's just kind of distracting, to be watching this movie, really enjoying it, wondering what's going to happen next and then WOAH that didn't look right. Perhaps it was done on purpose to make the zombies look twitchy and unnatural, but it seems like if that's what they wanted, they should have told the zombie extras that and filmed it at regular speed. If they wanted the fast zombies which have become oh-so-popular of late, why didn't they have the extras run? They already showed the zombies running! But, despite the words I've wasted on it, it's a small gripe. The other effects are pretty good, the zombie make-up is good, and I particularly remember the scene where a zombie's hand gets caught in a meat grinder. Another minor problem my friend brought up is that when- not to give too much away- they use C4 to blow up a building, the explosion is MUCH too small for the rather excessive amount of C4 they used.
The story? It's not bad. There's three main sides in the conflict; Quinn & Co, the Zombies, and the scientist who wants to exploit the zombies to stop people from dying. To sum it all up, Quinn and the cook become fugitives after killing some zombies because nobody believes in the zombies yet, they meet the film student in a bar, circumstances force them to work together to stop the zombies and escape the scientist. Looking back it's pretty basic, but the writing is good and the characters' interactions are entertaining. I think my favorite joke is a blatant, straight-outta-nowhere stab at Michael Bay that I won't spoil for you.
All in all, Dead and Deader is worth checking out. It's no masterpiece, but it's decent, especially for a SyFy channel original. Go in with low-enough expectations and a bowl of popcorn and you should have a blast.
I love SyFy channel original movies. Savage Planet, Swamp Devil, Mothman, Raptor Island, etc, they epitomize bad movies and I love them for it. Every now and then, though, they turn out something better. Never great, mind you, but better. I though Mothman was decent enough, and D&D 2: Wrath of the Dragon God was, strangely, much better that the first, big budget film. And then there's Dead and Deader. This one really surprised me. It's about a soldier (played by Dean Cain) who's squad dies, and are brought back to the US for autopsies- but Cain's character, Lt. Bobby Quinn, wakes up. Not that he comes back to life, he's still dead, but he can function as a normal human. The rest of his squad, though come back to life as more typical, ravenous zombies and Quinn, the base's cook (Guy Torry), and a film student-bartender (Susan Ward) have to stop the spread of the infection.
Aside from the awesome idea of a zombie fighting other zombies, this movie isn't your typical SyFy film (in case I haven't mentioned that already). The acting is pretty good, better than, say... most of their output, the effects are pretty good, the story's alright, and a lot of the jokes are actually pretty funny. The problem I had with the effects is towards the end, there are several shots of zombies shambling down a hall. Aside from the fact that they may have used it more than once (I can't quite recall), it looked to my admittedly untrained eye to have been sped up. It's just kind of distracting, to be watching this movie, really enjoying it, wondering what's going to happen next and then WOAH that didn't look right. Perhaps it was done on purpose to make the zombies look twitchy and unnatural, but it seems like if that's what they wanted, they should have told the zombie extras that and filmed it at regular speed. If they wanted the fast zombies which have become oh-so-popular of late, why didn't they have the extras run? They already showed the zombies running! But, despite the words I've wasted on it, it's a small gripe. The other effects are pretty good, the zombie make-up is good, and I particularly remember the scene where a zombie's hand gets caught in a meat grinder. Another minor problem my friend brought up is that when- not to give too much away- they use C4 to blow up a building, the explosion is MUCH too small for the rather excessive amount of C4 they used.
The story? It's not bad. There's three main sides in the conflict; Quinn & Co, the Zombies, and the scientist who wants to exploit the zombies to stop people from dying. To sum it all up, Quinn and the cook become fugitives after killing some zombies because nobody believes in the zombies yet, they meet the film student in a bar, circumstances force them to work together to stop the zombies and escape the scientist. Looking back it's pretty basic, but the writing is good and the characters' interactions are entertaining. I think my favorite joke is a blatant, straight-outta-nowhere stab at Michael Bay that I won't spoil for you.
All in all, Dead and Deader is worth checking out. It's no masterpiece, but it's decent, especially for a SyFy channel original. Go in with low-enough expectations and a bowl of popcorn and you should have a blast.
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