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Thread: Dead End (1985): The "lost" holy grail of zombie movies

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    HpotD Curry Champion krakenslayer's Avatar
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    Dead End (1985): The "lost" holy grail of zombie movies

    You may or may not have heard of this film, but since I have never seen any mention of it on these forums, I thought I'd post a thread about it. Who knows, perhaps someone out there even owns a dusty copy!

    Dead End is an extremely dark comedy made in 1985 by writer/director Emerson Bixby. It was shot on a low budget and, from the very few reviews available online, is notable for being particularly violent and exceedingly gruesome.

    The plot, so far as I can tell, involves an object that crashes to Earth near a small town, an event that is followed by a series of mysterious violent incidents. A reckless film crew shows up, hoping to document what they think is a UFO crash, before the government arrives to cover it up. The quickly discover the object was, in fact, a military bio-weapons satellite carrying a micro-organism that has wiped out the local population and re-activated their nervous systems, turning them into violent, flesh eating zombies. The film plays out as footage recorded by the film-makers, and plot unfolds kind of like a cross between Diary of the Dead, Cannibal Holocaust and Dead Rising, with the crew attempting to stay alive while getting plenty of juicy, sensationalistic material for their documentary. From what I can gather, the climax
     
    sees the crew trying to escape from the town as it is stormed/bombarded by the army.


    At face value, this all seems like an obvious inspiration for George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead. However, I find it pretty unlikely, as Bixby's film is considered, at least temporarily, lost - more on that in a minute.

    The zombies in the film are interesting in that, despite initially appearing like standard Romero shamblers, their behaviour is bizarre and disturbing, beyond simply eating flesh. One scene involves a mail-man zombie who wanders one block endlessly, like a stuck record, stuffing rocks and severed body parts into mailboxes, while another zed drags the rotting corpse of a dead dog around the streets, stopping at every fire hydrant he passes. There is one particularly gross-out scene that involves the crew filming a zombie baby forcing its way back into its dead mother. The film also features many horror, sci-fi and cult movie in-jokes.


    Although it is almost certain that numerous copies of the film still exist on videocassette (a reasonable number of people claim to have seen it on video "years ago"), not one of the many people now searching for this "forgotten gem" seems to be able to locate a copy. It's not available from any internet store, never appears on eBay, nor does it feature in the catalogues of online DVD-R bootleggers, and video search companies seem unable to track it down. Nevertheless, the film is not one of those hoax titles like Indian Fetish Cult (a made up movie that was added to IMDB as a prank, supposedly starring Amy Yip and banned in dozens of countries, despite never existing), this movie does exist, or at least did: it is mentioned in Fab Press's excellently-researched Nightmare USA, the director is a known quantity who has worked on several films before and since, and fans have even managed to make contact with him in their search (he no longer has the original tapes, and has himself been trying to hunt down a copy of the movie for his own collection). According to him, it sadly never made it out of the underground, as it was self-financed and self-distributed via those horror mail-order companies in the back of Fangoria. By all accounts, though, it is a far, far more entertaining and well-made film than its inauspicious release would suggest. For better or worse, I just hope I get to see it for myself before I die.

    Bah... why am I always attracted to the most bizarre, hard to find movies?

    Don't suppose any of this rings any bells for anyone?

  2. #2
    Dead Mr.G's Avatar
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    Sounds interesting. I'll look it up and see if I can find anything.

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    Dying Ghost Of War's Avatar
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    A couple of searches bring it up as AKA: Zombietown. Probably doesn't help, because I haven't heard of either.
    Kill 'em All

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    HpotD Curry Champion krakenslayer's Avatar
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    Sorry to commit such a heinous act of thread necromancy, but I've just written an article on this INSANELY elusive zombie film, which I've been researching for some time, and might be of interest to my fellow zed-heads and cult film freaks:

    http://obscurityandbeyond.blogspot.c...-end-1985.html

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    Webmaster Neil's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by krakenslayer View Post
    Sorry to commit such a heinous act of thread necromancy, but I've just written an article on this INSANELY elusive zombie film, which I've been researching for some time, and might be of interest to my fellow zed-heads and cult film freaks:

    http://obscurityandbeyond.blogspot.c...-end-1985.html
    Just a quick comment - Dark grey on black = hard to read!
    Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. [click for more]
    -Carl Sagan

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    Just Married AcesandEights's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by To Obscurity and Beyond
    One IMDB contributor claims to recall a vendor at horror conventions in the late 1980s selling bootleg copies and enthusiastically recommending it to all who would listen, but the description of the seller (long hair, overweight) could apply to two-thirds of the attendance at such events.


    I had forgotten about this thread for some time till your recent necromantic practices and find I'm once again intrigued at the possibilities. I just have a hard time believing a movie so recent would not have a shred of media circulating the web in part, if not entirety.

    "Men choose as their prophets those who tell them that their hopes are true." --Lord Dunsany

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    Fresh Meat
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    I seen this film when i was about 8yr old thru 2 about 13yr old, 31 now nd neva seen it since, it really is the 'lost holy grail' of zombie movies. Probably never see it again, such a shame

  8. #8
    Desiderata Satanicus Andy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Neil View Post
    Just a quick comment - Dark grey on black = hard to read!
    I didnt find that hard to read at all...

    Unless martins changed it since?

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    HpotD Curry Champion krakenslayer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Neil View Post
    Just a quick comment - Dark grey on black = hard to read!
    Quote Originally Posted by Andy View Post
    I didnt find that hard to read at all...

    Unless martins changed it since?
    Hmm... sounds like it might not be rendering properly on Neil's computer. What browser you using Neil?

    The text should appear white against a dark grey block sitting on top of a black background. The only text that appears grey (mid-grey) is in hyperlinks.

  10. #10
    Webmaster Neil's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by krakenslayer View Post
    The only text that appears grey (mid-grey) is in hyperlinks.
    That's what I'm talking about...
    Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. [click for more]
    -Carl Sagan

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