Customer Reviews

Diaries of the Living Dead

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Even when scored on the b-movie curve, these two only rate about 1.5 stars. Given that both movies throw in some prurient humor, I'll round the score up to 2 stars.

In "Dead Summer", a small town in rural Pennsylvania is quarantined after a zombie outbreak. By the time the story opens, people have gotten used to living "inside the fence" and know that the army will shoot them if they try to leave. On the upside, the army delivers supplies and as long as the locals have their magazines, booze, and zombie sex slaves, no one tries to leave . . .

This micro-budget production gets credit for dealing with some of the "classic" zombie movie issues (dealing with a loved one becoming infected, long term psychological effects of living in a "post zombie apocalypse, etc) and providing employment to an ensemble cast of aspiring actors in Pennsylvania.

However, the writing, plot, dialogue, acting, production values, etc. are all wretched. The plot basically follows "a day in the life" of a group of friends as they get killed off one by one by zombies and their own stupidity (you'd think after years of living with the threat of zombie attacks, people would remember to lock the door behind them . . .) Finally, the survivors decide to take their anger out on the Government for quarantining them. They are about as successful at this goal as they are dealing with the zombies in the first place.

In Deadhunter, which was filmed in Seville, Spain, the production values are quite a bit better, but the dialogue is all in Spanish and the special effects are still pretty much nonexistent ("pretending" to shoot the gun and then dubbing in "gunfire" sound effects, etc.)

Instead of horny teenagers, Deadhunter follows the (short) careers of a unit of professional zombie fighters formed to deal with an outbreak of Zombies in Seville. "Professional" in this context meaning people off of the street who are getting paid. They obviously have no formal training, uniforms, standardized equipment, etc. They do, however, have a willingness to rush in where angels fear to tread and fight it out with Zombies. There is no functional plot or character development. The story consists of a number of battles between zombies and zombie fighters. It ends when the source of the zombie outbreak is found (in the city subway system) and one last battle is fought.

If you've seen every other Zombie movie ever made and you need a zombie fix, this double feature DVD is better than nothing . . . barely.

This movie was disappointing. The info on the DVD made it seem like I was getting something like a George Romero movie and should have known better. Its not a bad movie, but rather something to watch when you have nothing else to see on TV.

I'll cut right to the chase: Dead Summer is far from being a 5-star movie. Budget constraints aside, I found the acting to be downright awful. In one scene, a character is shot in the head. Watch her fight to keep a straight face. Nothing sucks the believability out of a flick quite like someone who can't commit to a role. I got the impression that the audition process went something like, "Hey, I'm making a movie! Want to be in it?" "Yeah!" "Great, you're hired!" Also, there were moments where the story seemed like it'd be promising, but it was hard to follow the plot due to poor audio.

Like all other low-budget films, this one carries the same characteristics: so-so makeup, pacing problems and iffy lighting. Please consider yourself warned.

Dead Summer was written by Robert Brewer who wrote Season of Rot. It's a great script with some decent acting for a micro-budget flick. The movie revolves around a tight knit group of friends who are part of a town that's been quarantined from the rest of the country due to the zombie epidemic. Even if the story line sounds familiar, don't let it stop you from checking this flick out, for the similarities end there. One gets the feeling that this would be how people would react and respond if the situation actually happened. You truly get involved with the characters. I highly recommend giving this flick a chance.

Dead Summer is a new take on zombies and its pretty damn good. If you enjoy full blown action with a real storyline, then I would grab a copy of this film today.