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| MOVIE
REVIEWS |
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The Dead Hate The Living (1999)
Far from perfect. Far from mediocre. I'm very proud to welcome
The Dead Hate The Living into the ranks of the "good
zombie movies". It's not in the same batch with Romero or
Fulci, but this one helps bridge the gap between the "greats"
and the "downright awful". I think there has long been a
big discrepancy between the two extremes with not a lot
of movies falling in that mid-range.
The Dead Hate the Living does just what I want it
to do, fill in the time until the next great zombie flick
and director will emerge. And that time spent was very enjoyable.
And not to get off course, but some may say that the zombie's
time has come and gone, but to those nay sayers I respond..."eat
me!" With the success of survival horror games such as Resident
Evil and a regenerated interest in horror movies spurred
on by Scream, I say that zombies will live again!
The movie revolves around a young director, named David
Poe (Eric Clawson), making his first feature film, and
it just happens to be about zombies. Oh, the irony of
it all! Do you think he planned it that way? Of course
he did, the character of David is really based on much
of the life of director David Parker. David Poe's sisters
and friends round up the cast and crew for the film. They've
decided to break in to an abandoned hospital to make their
film. And we all know what happens to people in horror
films who do anything illegal or immoral...they die. Not
to give anything away, but I'm sure we all know that by
now. It wouldn't have been so bad had they left the corpse
they found alone. And we all know what happens when you
use a real corpse as an unpaid cast member in your new
movie that you're making. Well, okay, so that one's not
as obvious maybe, I've tried to tell you guys this, but
I'll repeat it again for those who missed it. Don't mess
with dead things! Just don't do it, it will save you all
a lot of pain and grief.
It's obvious there wasn't a huge budget for the film,
but amazingly it doesn't reek with the stench of low budget.
The actors Dave Parker found were great young talents
in my opinion and I expect to see them again down the
road. No weak links in this bunch, each gave a great performance
and made the characters really stand out. The good acting
would have to be the biggest plus in this movie, just
because so many that have come before it have really lacked
that aspect. The director Dave Parker cast the lead in
a mold of himself and most of the other characters as
people he knew. The other usual result of being a low-budget
film is that the sets are horrible, but again, they did
a great job with what they had. The sets looked great
and you could tell that a lot of care was put into building them.
The Dead Hate the Living was a little slow to
take off but once it did, it kept the tension till the
end. Don't expect to jump out of your seats during the
picture, but expect to get some really creepy atmostphere.
Parker brings us two of the more intimidating and scary
zombies you'll ever see. I've seen quite a few zombie
flicks, and the two main zombies in this one are two that
I would least like to see in a dark graveyard...staggering
after me...wanting to eat me.
There was copious amounts of gore, but none of it took away
from the story, but rather served to compliment it. I think
real horror fans will enjoy this movie because it was directed
by a guy who really loves the genre and you can tell. Parker
pays homage to many of the greats who have come before him,
notably the likes of Carpenter, Fulci, Romero, and Raimi.
He also pays homage to great make-up artist and actor Tom
Savini and the best S-Mart employee of them all,
Bruce Campbell. I challenge you to watch this movie, pay
attention to the details, and see how many references to
other movies you can find.
If this movie had a higher budget they could have done
a lot more with it and it could have been really amazing!
I think that Parker did a great job with what he had.
It's sad that producers and movie studios won't put as
much money into movies such as this because they're just
not mainstream enough. But it's just a fact of movie life
and we have to live with it. Romero had the same problems
even after his successes, it's a tough industry to say
the least.
| RATING |
(Out of 5) |
| DVD
RELEASE DATE |
| March 14 2000 |
| DEAD KEV'S ADVICE |
| If you're depressed that there aren't enough good zombie movies out there, then go get this movie! This one should put the faith back in that black heart of yours! It's pretty darn cheap these days, and you can buy it for a little more than you would pay to rent it. |
ZOMBIE LESSONS LEARNED |
For the zombie filmmakers out there:
- Spring the extra cash for some good fake corpses...don't
use a real one! |
| FAVORITE QUOTES |
-"What would Bruce Campbell do?"
-"I guess after my parents had me, they decided one was enough."
|
| DIRECTOR |
| Dave Parker (Bimbo Movie Bash) |
| WRITER |
| Dave Parker (House
of the Dead) |
| PRODUCERS |
| Charles Band (Prison of the Dead) |
| Kirk Edward Hansen (The Creeps) |
| Dana Scanlan |
| CAST |
CHARACTER |
| Eric Clawson |
David Poe |
| Benjamin P. Morris |
Eric |
| Jeff Gillen |
Jeff |
| Jamie Donahue |
Zombie Corpse |
| Doyle Rockwell |
Dr. Eibon |
| Brett Beardslee |
Paul |
| Wendy Speake |
Shelly Poe |
| Kimberly Pullis |
Nina Poe |
| Rick Irwin |
Marcus |
| Matthew McGrory |
Gaunt |
| Andre 'Doc' Newman |
Maggot |
| Ariauna Albright |
Ellie Eibon |
| Dave Parker |
Clerk (uncredited) |
| PRODUCTION COMPANY |
| Full Moon Pictures |
| STUDIO |
| Full Moon Pictures |
| COUNTRY OF ORIGIN |
| United States |
| RUNNING TIME |
MPAA RATING |
| 90 mins |
R |
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| MORE
DATES |
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03/03
Ultraviolet
03/24
Stay Alive
04/14
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04/21
Silent
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05/19
See No Evil
06/06
Omen 666
08/11
The Visiting
08/18
The Messengers
08/18
Snakes On a Plane
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