The Dead Next Door (1989)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

J.R. Bookwalter

Writer:

J.R. Bookwalter (writer)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

How do you kill something that won't die? Where do you run when they're everywhere?

Plot:

The government sets up a Zombie squad after an epidemic has made the world run rampant with living corpses...

Plot Keywords:

Zombie | Virus | White House | Akron Ohio | Blood

Cast

Pete Ferry	...	Raimi (as Peter Ferry)
Bogdan Pecic	...	Dr. Moulsson (as Bogdan 'Don' Pecic)
Michael Grossi	...	Mercer
Jolie Jackunas	...	Kuller
Robert Kokai	...	Rev. Jones
Floyd Ewing Jr.	...	Capt. Kline
Roger Graham	...	Dr. Franklin
Maria Markovic	...	Anna
Jon Killough	...	Vincent / farmhouse zombie
Scott Spiegel	...	Richards
Jeff Welch	...	Cmdr. Carpenter
Michael Todd	...	Jason / Van driver
J.R. Bookwalter	...	Lloyds
Jennifer Mullen	...	Powers
Joe Wedlake	...	Dr. Savini

Runtime:

84 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Germany:(Banned) (2002) | UK:18 | USA:Unrated | West Germany:18 | Spain:18 | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

Akron, Ohio, USA

Company:

Amsco Studios

Trivia:

Sam Raimi used his pay from Evil Dead II (1987) to fund this film.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Mysterious Skin (2004)

Soundtrack:

Death In My Closet

An unassuming zombie flick brought to fruition on zip budget, admittedly had its occasional moments.

When I first approached this, I was not half expecting something more crude and nasty, but instead I found this to be mildly entertaining and an inoffensive ode to the classics of the genre, e.g. 'Night of The Living Dead', 'The Evil Dead', et all.

Something about this I particularly enjoyed was the tongue in cheek, often self-mocking sense of humour, with such things as a zombie frequenting a video store, and its subsequent choice selection of tapes to rent, and there is a plethora of other in jokes which should please real fans. Other more satirical things like protesters congregating for the civil rights of zombies, and also a religious cult of fanatics which believe it is Gods' will that the un dead becomes the successors to the human race. I suppose many of these little touches go to lengths in characterising the movie.

As for the acting here, every player gives Oscar winning Jack Nicholson style performances, um, er, . . . I jest of course, seriously though, all of these willing unknowns do try, and seemingly give their best, and granted the somewhat underdeveloped threadbare script to work with, I think in most case's make up for general lack of natural talent with more gumption and enthusiasm.

The director\producer\writer here gives many of the characters names of established horror directors, like calling the main protagonist Raimi, and another one is called Doctor Savini. , And so on. On a side note, Fred Dekker took a similar approach with 'Night of The Creeps' released a couple of years later.

One of the problems that pull the rug from under this movie is that there is just too many characters, and none are really fleshed out properly, and there isn't really anything under lying the story to get your teeth into (sorry) making this rather chaotic and boring at times.

Effects wise, this has a few good moments, with occasional scenes which sport a zombie that has proper prosthetic makeup, which does look quite good taking into account the minimal resources. Also, some limited special gore effects, such as blood squirting and twitching body parts, which are done here in the style of Sam Raimi's aforementioned sleeper. Other than this however, most effects constitute just extras running around with some green paint smeared on their faces, as you might come to expect.

Overall, 'The Dead Next Door' remain a fairly decent zombie outing, and given the production values and time spent in development, can be looked at as a sort of achievement in its own right. Some chuckles and decent effects save it from being a complete waste of time, and I think it is more worthwhile than many modern horror efforts.

I can't recommend this one to everybody, but non-discriminating horror movie goers, and real splatter aficionado's will most likely get a bit of a kick out of it.