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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
eerily prophetic, hauntingly sad, June 30, 2005
I had the interesting experience of stumbling across this film by going through it's memorable backdoor - the music. I had a copy of Tomas Hart's score to "Laughing Dead" before I had ever seen the movie. I was searching for a composer for a small project I had at the time, and when I heard the music to "Laughing Dead" I wanted to see the film.
This is not an easy film to watch, it is not your typical end-of-the-world zombie flick that is a fun romp, entertainment value only. Gleason has something to say, and is desperately trying to show us his vision of a not too distant future, where the rich feed upon the poor, (in this case, literally) the earths resources are so toxic that those who have escaped being rounded up and put into farms are now insane with ingesting poisons, and the few healthy, sane people left are forced to stay inside, with only a flickering, static-y television for human contact. It is not a pretty picture, and although it could be considered by some as extremely over-the-top, the metaphores are chillingly apt. Gleasons eyes, on both sides of the camera, radiate this bleak vision with such deep despair, while composer Tomas Hart's muted piano and wounded cello slide in and around characters who are struggling to survive in an already dead world. Gleason and Hart are showing us a future that, one feels, they have somehow seen, and they are crying out, both visually and musically, for the audience to look around and understand that this is neither science, nor fiction, nor fantasy. This is horrifying, and if one were to open their eyes a little bit wider, it is not futuristic, either. The Future is here, and Gleason and Hart together hand it to us, no holds barred. They are not without a sense of humor, however, as this film has a nice dose of campiness, but doesn't that play right into what we see today, what with our reality shows, celebrity tabloid trials, and a daily body count of a war that is supposedly over. These two artists are frightning in what they saw in 1996, and how close we are in 2005.
I recommend this film to see what can be accomplished by a few talented people without a budget, without permits, without studio backing, simply a burning desire to be heard.
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