Dead Above Ground (2002)

User Rating:

3.1/10   

Director:

Chuck Bowman

Writer:

Stephen J. Cannell (writer)

Genre:

Crime | Horror

Tagline:

School is hell. And it just got far, far worse.

Plot:

Students and teachers begin dying the same way as a video depicts. |

Plot Keywords:

Teenkill | Neck Breaking Scene | Axe In The Chest | Goth Girl | Slasher

Cast

Corbin Bernsen	...	Mark Mallory
Stephen J. Cannell	...	Carl Hadden
Robert Conrad	...	Reed Wilson
Adria Dawn	...	Zara Light
Tony Denman	...	Bobby 'Monster' Mooley
Adam Frost	...	Chip Palmer
Lauren German	...	Darcy Peters
Reagan Gomez-Preston	...	Latrisha McDermont
Lisa Ann Hadley	...	Dr. Brenda Boone
Josh Hammond	...	Jeffrey 'Jeff' Lucas / Rick Mallory
Craig Kirkwood	...	Jason Johnson
Cindy Margolis	...	Kari McClure Mallory
Don Michael Paul	...	Tom Bradley
Keri Lynn Pratt	...	Kelly 'Kel' Britton
Antonio Sabato Jr.	...	Sgt. Dan DeSousa

MPAA:

Rated R for violence and language.

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Goofs:

Continuity: In one scene, Dillion tells a girl he drives an old Camaro. In another scene, someone strikes his car which is clearly a Pontiac Firebird.

Movie Connections:

References The Exorcist (1973)

Soundtrack:

If You Would

what did i just watch?!

Stephen Cannell?! The man behind the A-Team? And my favorites "Rip Tide" and "Wiseguy"? This... TURKEY... is an example of what the poorest written low-budget horror film would look like. I mean, a team of monkeys could do better than this.

I've seen many, many horror flicks, and this rates so far down there. It's completely unwatchable. I mean, there's no payoff anywhere. It's an insult to view. Even worse that George Lucas was drawn into this for no reason. Worse, the acting, characters, story, dialog, plot, and everything else just suck, suck, suck.

On the positive side, if you're looking to make a horror film yourself, view this film to see how NOT to do it. If you have an idea that's even a little better than this one, you can be one- up on Cannell himself. Speaking of which, WHY was he even in this film? He looked like this old dude in a film that presents a plot SO implausible... it's an insult. To whit: the coach gets fired, yet hangs around the parking lot to harass a teacher (Cannell), and he doesn't do anything about it. The best part of the film is Sabato, Jr, though you have to wonder why he had anything to do with this piece of detritus.

The original title was "Director's Cut", and according to Cannell's website the movie would allow them to "experiment with new narrative ideas, visual styles and different approaches to editing". Also on the website "We were really stepping out," said Bowman. "So we needed to keep absolute creative control." Uh, yeah. Just promise me never, EVER do it again.