The Dead Hate The Living! (2000)
By: Paul Ryan on October 3. 2006.
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| Force Entertainment (Australia). Region 4, PAL. 4:3. English DD 2.0 91 minutes |
| The Movie |
| Cover Art |
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| Credits |
Director: Dave Parker
Starring: Eric Clawson, Jamie Donahue, Brett Beardslee, Wendy Speake
Screenplay: Dave Parker
Music: Jared DePasquale
Country: USA |
A low-budget zombie film about the making of a
low-budget zombie film is a great idea that gets
middling treatment in Full Moon's The Dead Hate The Living!. Marking the directorial
debut of film editor Dave Parker (who went on to
co-write House of the Dead, but
we'll ignore that for now), this is a bit
of a jumble, but is put together with genuine enthusiasm
and love of the genre.
Struggling
director David Poe (Eric Clawson) is attempting
to film a cheap zombie opus in an abandoned hospital
with his friends. Whilst dealing with the usual
pitfalls of independent filmmaking (no filming
permits, difficult cast members, etc) he stumbles
upon a real human corpse. Over the (quite understandable)
objections of his cast and crew, David elects
to use the body in the film, never giving any
thought to just how this cadaver got there. Before
long, David and his crew have inadvertently revived
the long-dead Doctor Eibon (Matt Stephens) who
unleashes a horde of honest-to-goodness undead
upon the hapless movie folk…
More ambitious than most Full Moon productions
(especially from this particular period) The Dead Hate The Living! struggles against
the usual budgetary restrictions (especially when
some dicky CGI is used to depict the zombies in
flames), but also demonstrates a good appreciation
of the tropes of the genre. References to David
Warbeck, Lucio Fulci and George A Romero fly fast
and furious. Some of these references are quite
groan-worthy ("Make them die…slowly!"
Eibon commands at one point), but others are amusing
and clever. The all-important scenes of zombie
carnage are well-handled and impressively gory.
Despite his later association with Dr Boll's
infamous cadaver opera, Parker displays enough
talent behind the camera to make one feel a small
pang of regret that he hasn't made any features
to date since this one. |
| Video |
| Presented on a single layer disc, Force's
DVD presentation is a very mixed bag. Opening with
some truly awful pixellation (especially in dark
scenes) this improves as it goes along, but still
isn't that great. The film itself looks as
though it was shot on film and then edited on video,
and as such often has the look of a TV show. As
with most Full Moon titles, this made-for-video
title is presented in 4x3 full frame. |
| Audio |
| A perfectly serviceable Dolby Stereo mix. |
| Extra Features |
| We miss out on the commentary which graced
the R1 release, but there is still a neat selection
of extras on offer.
Revival of the Living Dead: The Making
of The Dead Hate The Living! (20.13):
In a first for an Australian Full Moon release,
we actually get the kind of behind the scenes
featurette that accompanies most of their American
releases. Parker speaks at length about his passion
for the horror genre and the headaches of making
a movie in just ten days. We get to see some amusing
b-roll footage of two of the zombies (one of them
the late Matthew McGrory of Big Fish and House of 1000 Corpses) singing,
"I'm a Little Teapot" in full
make-up. The cast gush about the director and
each other (really painfully in the case of one
actor) and the shared enthusiasm of all involved
shines through.
Music Video: "Tears of Blood" by
Penis Flytrap (9.39m, 4x3 Letterbox): An earlier
short by Parker, this is a music video for obscure
metal act Penis Flytrap. Crap song, bad acting,
but good makeup and gore.
Trailer (1.46): Short and to the point, and with
slightly better quality video than the feature
itself. |
| The Verdict |
Despite being a quickie production, The Dead Hate The Living! features enough good
points to be worth at least a rental, though at
just $9.95, it's a reasonably cheap buy. The
video is lacking, but the sound is fine and the
extras are better than you'd expect for a
cheap little film.
And remember: What would Bruce Campbell do? |
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| User Comments |
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1 user comments have been posted so far |
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Better than most films with triple the budget.