Yes, I know, you've all been chomping at the bit to hear what I have to say - because, quite frankly, I am amazing.  You could say, I'm a as awesome as a lava lamp. 
Seriously though chaps (and chappettes), here's what I have to say about Deadlands: The Rising...
Deadlands: The Rising is debut filmmaker Gary Ugarek’s own answer to Night of the Living Dead, but with far more scope and on a tighter budget. The true spirit of independent filmmaking is well and truly alive here (or should I say “living dead”?), the flick coming together after over a year of hard work for credit-only pay. Everyone involved did this for the love of the game, or at least to have a lot of (gory) fun with their friends on available weekends. Made on a budget of $15,000 (including equipment) it’s astonishing to see how much Director Ugarek, Producer Brian Wright and their team of hardworking chums have managed to pull out of the proverbial blood spattered bag.
Of course, being a low budget debut there are the odd signs of ‘learning on the job’, but these in no way detract or even distract you from the film itself. The odd bit of quiet dialogue or the rare over-exposed shot aren’t even blips on the radar of this technical lava lamp – Deadlands looks kick ass and the scope is hypnotic.
The story plonks us smack-bang in the middle of October 2008, a normal day in Middle America until a biological terrorist attack rocks the city, and spreads with it devastating results. The film begins sedately enough, swiftly flashing us back to the afternoon before the attack took place, before leading us gradually closer to the chaos that followed the downtown explosion. Ugarek’s handling of pace, especially as a debut filmmaker, is top notch. A common problem with many indie zombie flicks is pacing, but there’s no such problem with Deadlands as you are neither left checking your watch nor struggling to keep up. The creeping sense of dread and growing chaos calmly saunters in throughout the 65 minute run until, in true George A. Romero fashion, we get some quality gore time. Spines are yanked out, flesh is gorged upon and the blood flows freely – and yet Ugarek is deft at not over-doing it. His eye for balance is well trained as we move from the light-hearted beginning to the third act bedlam, one minute you will be yucking it up (‘Captain of the Obvious’, “three teeth” or the foul-mouthed black guy) and the next minute you’ll be throwing up.
He thanks Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead remake), Dan O’Bannon (Return of the Living Dead) and George A. Romero (Godfather of the zombie genre) in the closing credits, as Gary himself as stated he took inspiration from these three guys who are synonymous with zombies. Ugarek, clearly, knows how to please a zombie movie fan, and as a result it pushes all the right buttons. The Director Commentary on the DVD further illustrates his insistence on doing this for the loyal and always-interested zombie fans across the globe, to whom he gives props during the credits. (Many thanks for the shout-out I received too!)
Again, this is a terrific achievement for a debut independent filmmaker (Ugarek dumped half his paycheque for a year into the project) with Deadlands acting as a beacon for up and coming talent – from Director of Photography Thomas Fant to the make up effects by Stephanie Petagno and the guys behind Spaghetti Industries. If Deadland’s is Ugarek’s Night of the Living Dead, his Dawn of the Dead (Deadlands 2 – in pre-production at the time of writing) is going to gobble you up from the outside in, in true zombie flesh eater style.
Fin
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Originally Posted by Ragnarr
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