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Overall Rating : 4.5/10
Directed By : Peter Mervis
Brick Firestone
Bay Bruner
Chriss Anglin
Robert James
Scott Carson
Supplied By : The Asylum
Film Reviewed By : Rick Blalock
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| PLOT A horrific plague infects a maximum security prison, turning visitors, guards, and inmates into vicious, flesh-eating zombies who slaughter all in their path. A heavily armed unit of elite guards band together with the surviving inmates to battle the ravenous horde with barely a prayer of making it out alive. |
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| THE REVIEW DEAD MEN WALKING, is one of the newest releases from The Asylum. I was excited to finally see this one as I had heard about it a few months back. Well i'd say it wasn't exactly what I expected it to be. The film starts out by showing a young man named Travis whom works at a bio lab, it seems as if Travis' friends have all be infected with a man made virus that has gotten a bit out of control. In a fight for his life Travis welds a shotgun, shooting and killing the infected off one by one. During this process he accidentally digests some of the infected blood making him infected as well All of this ultimately leads to his arrest where he is then sent off to a maximum security prison. Upon his arrival, Travis begins to get sick, they send him to go see the prison's appointed doctor. During the doctor's evaluation Travis, vomits the infected blood onto him and then our fun begins as the infection spreads from one inmate to the next and one guard to the next, causing all kinds of horrific Chaos, The few whom are left band together to try and rid the prison of the mass infection before it's spreads unto the world on the outside. Let me just say that I am having some really mixed thoughts about this film. This review will more than likely come out to be a little mixed. The story for DEAD MEN WALKING was written by Mike Watt, whom regularly writes for Film Threat, and is someone whose work I respect. The story, writing and concept are all fantastic, as Watt, is a horror fan himself and obviously knows what the horror enthusiast wants to see. But my problem here is that the screenplay wasn't translated all to well as it could've and should've been. When you first begin to view this film, it starts out at a very fast pace that does initially entertain you but all of that goes down a notch, when you are presented with the next few scenes that are incredibly slow and lagging, only to speed up again later. The reason I am so torn with this film is that I really, really enjoyed the gore. The gore in DEAD MEN WALKING, is incredible and is some of the best gore I have seen so far in an indie horror picture. Shot on digital the film also looks great visually with random sped up shots and various close-ups of the zombies' facial expressions and actions. The acting, is one of the things that hinders the movie in the biggest way. Sure our story is a bit slow at select times, but with stronger performances, the movie could've probably bypassed is deterioration in pace. Being a male, I always try to maybe like the lead actress, nothing against Bay Bruner at all but I just don't believe that her performance was all that great... as with the rest of the cast. This film is a little 50/50 with me, great atmosphere, great story, but with a shaky pace and unenthusiastic acting by the cast. |
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| GORE
METER 7.5/10 Great gore in this film, all kinds of meat eatin' going on here. We also have numerous bloody gunshots to the head to feast our eyes on, |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 6/10 I liked the score for DEAD MEN WALING, it has some really fast rock tracks that really add intensity to the action sequences |
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| SPECIAL
FEATURES RATING 5.5/10 The "Making Of" behind the scenes featurette that is included here is really interesting. They will show you how all the magic happens, how all the make up is applied and just how it is executed. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM Well I did like this film, but if you have to look at it technically, such as I do it appears strikingly different. As a fan i'd watch this for fun but as a journalist there are just too many things that bug me, so therefore I am on the fence, so to speak. I think the Asylum did a great job on the dvd's cover art, I think it is one of their best and should grab attention. I'd recommend this but with only a glass half full.... |
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