DEADLANDS -The HPotD MEMBER REVIEW Thread.

[Danny]

yeah spot on review, told you mine would be ****ty, but yeah for £8 you be hardd pressed to find a better movie to watch for halloween, especially a horror made this side of 2005.

[LouCipherr]

and after listening to the commentary, it was confirmed my ears were not kidding me into thinking it sounded reminiscent of Alice In Chains. Not sure if you knew MZ, but that "alice in chains" sounding song was a song my band cut back in 2001 called "Mystic Shadows". I was HUGE into Alice in Chains, and my singer had his feet stuck in the classic rock mud (not that there's anything wrong with that). He didn't really think Alice in Chains was all that 'till I started playing him some of the tracks that weren't on the radio - then the bug bit him, and Mystic Shadows was born. Mystic Shadows, by the way, was written about a bad acid trip the singer had.

[MinionZombie]

Aye yeah I think Dj said about that in the commentary, well not the acid trip bit, but that it was you guys' band. Hellsing ... I think you've been schmokin' too much HPOTD-cheeba-cheeba ... it's 2006.

[DjfunkmasterG]

Actually I was thinking the cast could run around and kill all the zombies with dildo's. Then after whacking their skulls in with rubber penises, they could all go to the local Arby's, fire up the meat slicer and have roast beef sandwiches, then off to the porn shop with the free quarters they lifted from the register to watch some Porn on demand in the $.25 jack me booth. That is what you call compelling entertainment.

[DjfunkmasterG]

Did I mention it in the commentary? Amazing how you can make a film and remember 90% of every detail from every shooting day, but one 70 minute commentary and your completely clueless. Is this the start of senility?

[MinionZombie]

Nah, I do the same thing, I've done commentaries for "my NIGHTMARE", "Trapped" and "VHS", but can't remember a damn thing I said in any of them. The first was just me (sat in my off-campus res while my housemates were downstairs watching the football), the second was me and Ben "that living bloke in Trapped who was also in Smack Addict and VHS" Connell and the third was me and Gareth "that bloke in my NIGHTMARE, Smack Addict, the end of VHS and IAZM aswell" Knox. No doubt it's because you spend so much time "within" the experience of filmmaking that you remember 90% of it, but sitting down to do a commentary is just bish-bash-bosh once through (usually anyway) so you don't really tend to pay as much attention.

[Adrenochrome]

Very nice!! We both enjoyed it tremendously! Where to begin.......hmmm The only complaint I have; in a couple of areas it was difficult to hear what was being said (opening narration by Michelle was the most difficult to hear). The acting is what I was expecting so, I was fine with all that (it wasn't "bad") - the guy that "locks himself in the bathroom(?) in the shelter" gets my vote for best actor. I love the plot! I wont say it is "Typical horror movie" (and I'm glad it's not!) but, it has you hoping things turn out ok. The zombies: wow VERY impressive work! The music: I love this most of all. Great work there, guys! The ending: PERFECT!!! My girlfriend and I sat and discussed it for at least an hour after viewing it. (Gary, she sends a *kiss to the bald head" your way )   the cricket bat found in the supply run, NICE "shout out" to Shaun of the Dead? The scene toward the end; the talk at the table between Gary and Brian is my/gf's favorite scene in the movie - adds to the "realism of a zombie flick". I loved the gore! The "throat rip" to the girl stuck in the traffic jam was excellent. I love how it ended with the zombies lurking in the dark up to the house where the survivors are staying - walking up to the door and.......RUN CREDITS!!! Classic ending! Patiently waiting for Part II, Tom P.S. one more complaint. Someone left the "y" out of "everyone" on the back cover.... Now what kind of shoddy work is that!!!??? Man!!!

[Danny]

the guy that "locks himself in the bathroom(?) in the shelter" gets my vote for best actor. damn dj it seems across the board this guy upstaged you P.S. one more complaint. Someone left the "y" out of "everyone" on the back cover.... Now what kind of shoddy work is that!!!??? Man!!! mine said "the world as we know it is coming to an-" but hye they might be valuable some day

[Adrenochrome]

damn dj it seems across the board this guy upstaged you mine said "the world as we know it is coming to an-" but hye they might be valuable some day DJ's (and Brian) acting toward the end, at the table, was very nice - and convincing. But the "locked room guy" was really good! about typo: My girlfriend said the same thing - 1st release Limited Edition Directors Cut with a typo!!!! Yes!!!

[DjfunkmasterG]

DJ's (and Brian) acting toward the end, at the table, was very nice - and convincing. But the "locked room guy" was really good! about typo: My girlfriend said the same thing - 1st release Limited Edition Directors Cut with a typo!!!! Yes!!! trust me they will be very valuable, about as valuable as used chewing gum squahed into the sidewalk. Anyway... Dave is a professional actor who I was lucky enough to get to work for food and screen credit. I have to pay him for DEADLANDS2, but he is well worth it. Do you guys remember the 3 people arguing in the shelter, thw two guys fight and the girls breaks them up? Well the girl is actress Melisa Breiner-Sanders, and she too is coming back for DEADLANDS 2... Now I know you guys are scratching your heads going... "How is that possible, the shelter was wiped out and they only showed Dave survive?" You're exactly right we only showed Dave leaving the shelter in one piece... however, doesn't mean everyone died. Melisa will have a much meatier role in DEADLANDS 2, and I am in talks with notable scream queen Debbie Rochon to possibly do a day on DEADLANDS 2. Her and I are going to meet at the festival in Wisconsin and talk about it. Hopefully she will agree to a small role.

[MinionZombie]

Cor blimey guvnah, things are certainly going great guns for Deadlands 2 while Deadlands is still fresh out of the grave ... so-to-speak, in a zombie related way. Strike while the iron's hot though, that's the idea, I've been reading the script (although it's an earlier 80-something page version) DL2 and it's friggin' great thus far, currently on page 58 (told you I was a slow reader ). That 20 pages leading up to page 58 had me gripped and I simply cannot wait to see how it comes out on screen, because if it's anything like how I vaguely thought of it in my head, it'll rock balls!

[Fulcifan91]

I too have a short unfinished version of the script, looking very very good. I cannot wait.

[Mike]

Hi Guys, This morning my copy of Deadlands arrived in my mail box, perfect timing for a Friday the 13th screening!! Here is my review: (sorry for writing a bible ) DEADLANDS: The Rising A review by Michael Facey I would like to start by saying wow! This film widely exceeded my expectations and then some. Normally with a low budget indie film, the story and quality of the product nearly renders them unwatchable, but I am pleased to say this film is definitely the exception. What Gary Ugarek and team managed to produce is an amazing production that had me hooked right until the end. Deadlands is a film, I will recommend to my friends and colleagues in the Australian industry simply because it works as a film, it is technically proficient and it tells a good story. What amazes me is what the team was able to achieve on its limited budget. To put it into context of my own personal experience, I have produced short films and Commercials typically on budgets of $10,000 Australian Dollars. For these guys to make a feature on $15,000 US is by no means a small feat, and I applaud them on their efforts. The most enjoyable aspect of the film for me was the story, music and camera work. I have heard complaints about for first twenty minutes of the film being boring but I honestly believe that this helped drive the film forward to its conclusion. The slow build up introduces all of the character whilst creating a sense of dread for what is going to happen. I never once felt bored during the first act of the film. The last forty minutes flies by almost to quickly but the natural progression of pace works for me. The cinematography was amazing, there are several sequences that have been lit perfectly and really do the film justice. The composition of shots is also extremely effective. The music in the film was the selling point to me. Every note in the entire film really drove the atmosphere of each scene and it is obviously something the guys put a lot of work into. The special make-up fx was also simply breathtaking in places, and this also really drove the story home with some nice gore effects (especially in the feeding scenes). Ugarek’s direction in the film for a first time director was above par on what I have seen so called “Professionals” deliver. He mixes the right balance of story over fx and action as well as demonstrating a knowledge in finding the perfect shot to tell the story. Unfortunately this film is without its flaws but many of them are forgivable due to the relative inexperience of the crew. As mentioned in other reviews, the acting at times is extremely weak but it has been well documented that no one had any real acting experience so this can be forgiven, although I would recommend on future productions that more time is spent prepping the actors through the beats of each scene, to make there dialogue and actions appear more natural and fluent. At times the editing did detract from the film. In my experience the best edits are the ones that are invisible, while this is the case for the most of the film there times where there are unintentional jump cuts in the action and the occasional flicker of black where the footage hasn’t matched up in the timeline. But again with practice, the editing style of Ugarek will flourish. At times the sound was extremely poor especially in the mixing between several shots. There are moments when the atmos surrounding a dialogue track changes during the scene and there are also occasions where the audio is distorted. One of the biggest problems for me was the progression of the story. Throughout the entire film, it felt like it was building up to a conclusion only to abruptly end. While the ending did work for me, I also felt let down simply because the film didn’t end up going anywhere, there was no character arch to follow and no conflicts were resolved. Despite the films flaws (and lets face it, every film has them) I did find Deadlands to be extremely enjoyable and it now proudly sits in my DVD cabinet next to the Romero dead films, and I cannot wait to see the sequel. Gary I wish you were in Australia because I would love to collaborate on a project with you, as on this film you have demonstrated a talent in making films and I can foresee a future in the industry for you and your team. Congratulations guys. Another thing, I love the DVD cover, the entire packaging is of such a high calibre you certainly wouldn’t know it was a home job. Overall I rate this film 8/10

[TwoGunBob]

Deadlands is an independent film written, directed, and starring Gary Ugarek. The film’s running time makes it fall somewhere between a featurette and a full length film. It could be considered a full length featurette if such a thing existed. The run time could have used another half hour so as not to leave the film so open ended for what is a decidedly unsatisfactory non-ending. As it stands the plot line is almost serial like in that it leaves feelings that the movie was rather a collection of spliced together episodes of a television series with no real resolution in mind. Gary Ugarek openly admitted that the acting was amateur and probably the biggest weakness in the film. Viewing of the film shows that there are indeed weaknesses in the acting that will be reviewed from the worst cases to arguably the best the film has to offer. At the worst end of the spectrum, the extras inevitably miss their marks every time. They tend to gush with that over enthusiasm towards portraying exaggerated emotion or stilt their few lines horribly. Very little surprise they tend to blow their lines. They are, after all, people off the street given lines and then having a camera on them for the first time in most cases. It can be easily hazarded that Gary worked with the crowds on the various panic scenes throughout the film. Usually in the independent films when a crowd is supposed to act panicked or frightened they tend to do this ludicrous bunny hop style of jogging that just looks awful on film and destroys any tension a scene may have. There are a few remnants of ‘bunny hoppers’ that can be caught on camera but the work that went into getting the crowds to respond with real running and panic can be appreciated. Likewise, Gary gave good direction to the various zombies as they act reserved as they should for the most part. There are a few that can be caught mugging for the camera a bit but on the whole they tend to act the part of a mostly mindless horde. The group of actors at the survival shelter are stiff. Stiff to a degree I would swear there is a Plan 9 from Outer Space moment when a few actors are reading their lines straight from the script. There were moments of eye drift to a table out of frame as if actors were searching out the next line. It’s all very wooden acting that borders on being painful at times. Most of the survival shelter scenes could have benefited from a great deal more rehearsal to get all those involved more comfortable with their roles. The shelter scenes tend to diffuse any tension growing and are a big weakness within the framework of the film. Gary Ugarek and Brian Wright do most of their scenes together and collectively work off each other. One of the larger issues between these two that form the traditional ‘buddy team’ of the film is that when one is on his mark the other is not. Neither one ever blows their lines at any point and its obvious they rehearsed them to a good degree. Mostly one or the other falls short of the mark rather than being guilty of the more painful overacting. As Brian and Gary converse it feels they are retelling a good conversation they had a long time ago rather than a dynamic conversation, it suffers for lacking a spark of enthusiasm towards the conversation. There are portions of scenes where the two actors hit their mark and it works. With a lot of practice and devotion to the art of acting the two as actors could get it right eventually. As it stands the two don’t flub their lines and don’t overly stilt the dialog. If anything, they understate all element a little too much and favor a more deadpan delivery which is preferable to angst inducing and cringing overacting. It’s just too detached from the goings on. It feels too much like two best friends in real life acting as two best friends and taking remembered snatches of good conversations and going through the motions a second time. More often than not Brian Wright hits his lines more than Gary Ugarek. Of the two whom spend most of their screen time together Brian hedges Gary out as the better actor. Dave Cooperman shines although he stands out more in that he is acting in the shelter scenes where most people are reciting dialog. He separates out as a greater juxtaposition as Cooperman is conveying emotion and the crowds around him are not really reacting to him as they should. Among other actors Dave Cooperman would have been excellent but as it stands the extras and actors in the scenes with him tend to drag him down. A capable actor that can deliver lines and convey emotion. His presence did save the scenes he is in from being far worse than they could have been. Connor Brandt is a child, not a child actor by any stretch. As it stands he has none of the typical actor child annoying traits that usually plague any film. He isn’t cute and precocious, rather he is just a child. This works as it doesn’t draw attention and the sympathy for him as a child in a world gone mad generates naturally. Michelle Wright is arguably the star of the film. I’m going to step out of review mode for a few seconds on this note. She is the star of Deadlands in my opinion and possibly the greatest asset to the film. There may be some who look and think ‘oh, she is overweight what is this? How can she be the star?’ and other asinine and childish comments that reflect the gross standards of today’s society. I’d suggest these people keep their attitudes to themselves as she is an attractive woman that was an excellent choice to be the feature of the film. Putting aside her relationship with Brian I’d like to think she was chosen for bringing ability to the table when the film was being made. That said… Michelle Wright hits her mark more than any of the other actors in the film. There are a few lines where she overshoots a hair and conveys too much emotion but overall she gets the reactions proper and recites the dialog in a believable fashion. She made an excellent ‘everywoman’ and was easy to empathize with overall. As said, a few lines here and there miss but overall she is the most consistent actor in the film. Overall the acting ranges from adequate to good with Michelle Wright and Dave Cooperman to downright abysmal among some of the extras. It overall shows a lot of first time acting and several scenes could have used a lot more polish and retakes but time was always a factor with this film. The overall film and cinematography suffers akin to the style used in Terror from the Year 5,000. There is too much visual telling with the camera rather than gaining forward momentum at times. Shots could have been shortened as it’s not necessary to show every door opening, every entry and exit from a vehicle. The scenes tend to have too much silent set up where actors are taking position to do their dialog and action rather than picking up where the action and interaction takes place. This leaves quite a few dead spots where a few seconds pass where nothing important is happening. Once again this acts to diffuse any building tension. Some of the shots are the typical ‘director takes a road trip around town with his camera running’ that stands out from the memories of the Thor film Zombie Nightmare. Rather than setting mood they feel more like padding at times. As a standard the filming through the city and landscapes has to be really spectacular to set and enhance a film’s mood. The footage in Deadlands doesn’t do much to enhance the film as a whole. The scenes which feature Gary Ugarek in front of the camera rather than behind it are not as tight as when Gary was actually directing. It would be advantageous to him to stay off camera in any future endeavors as there is a notable change in style to a lower level when he steps out from directing. Most of the shoots are fairly pedestrian. There is seldom any camera wobble and the director of photography and Gary know how to frame a shot successfully. Most of the shots are straight forward, framed and shot with little movement. It tends to weaken, as mentioned, when Gary is not actively directing but acting. Thomas Fant, the director of photography, is capable. No doubt working with minimal equipment was a hamper but his work on keeping everything from turning into an amateur ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’ moment is to be applauded. The camera work never falls into ‘handi-cam mode’ with a palsy shake or any of the usual earmarks of an amateur film. The overall plot is straight forward. Bad thing happens (terrorist attack), dead rise, people get scared, mayhem ensues. The film follows the first day efforts of various people to survive and in some cases just get back together. The first quarter of the film is given to establishing the roles of the various lead characters. It seems the scenes with Gary and Brian are more devoted to explaining why they have guns at the start of the apocalypse rather than their roles as best friends. Michelle Wright carries the opening with believable dialog and concerns establishing her as the aforementioned everywoman. Scenes involving Brian and Gary as characters seem a bit forced to establish them as survivor types. The scenes between the two never break out into an all out testosterone tough male fest but the scenes have an aftertaste of trying too hard to make the two seem a bit hard and chiseled in the face of doom. Perhaps a bit too much writer/director vanity comes in to play as it’s apparent Gary Ugarek envisions himself as a bit of the hero of the apocalypse.

[TwoGunBob]

The establishing scenes do drag at times but there’s nothing to really pull them down at this point. Once the mayhem begins and the extras show up is where scenes begin to flounder and the story suffers. As mentioned above, the action scenes avoid the usual badness that plagues smaller productions. It also shows the glaring limits of the budget. While there is gore at times there is a great deal of extra zombies mobbing with no special effects in place. In particular one actor rather falls to pieces in a decidedly comical fashion. Mostly the choice of shots to disguise this particular special effect are poorly chosen and are unintentionally a bit humorous. There is one particular throat ripping scene that excels and if the rest of the attacks had featured similar items of note it would have really elevated the film. This should have been the watermark to judge the effects by rather than the highpoint however. The zombie make up itself ranges from good on the featured zombies to minimal on the second and third row zombies as is typical of a film this stature. There’s no particularly ground breaking appliances and it’s the usual assortment of extras showing up to be zombies as Gary Ugarek tries to avoid filming the ones that showed up with mohawks stuck into the air and other distracting issues that draw too much attention to the extra under the make up rather than the zombies as a mob. In a lot of cases the zombie attacks are a bit stiff but less so than other films of a similar caliber. This doesn’t necessarily make them good so much as mediocre and not entirely laughable. It is impressive that a character manages to hold off the living dead with nothing more than a flimsy particle board door and a eye and hook lock that I’ve seen infants break. To be fair the zombie never really tried pulling on the door so much as playing patty cake with it. The main overall issue is one of pacing. There is simply too much time spent filming the set up and resolution of each scene with the camera rolling while actors move to their marks to start interacting. This seems prevalent in scenes involving Gary and Brian more so than scenes set with Michelle which fairly clip along at an acceptable pace at times. The scenes involving the mother and son survival theme seem better written and planned for. As a tangent, the costuming chosen for the characters seems too average in this case. While the actors are supposed to represent the average men and women in the midst of chaos, the actors should still stand out from the extras when it comes to wardrobe. Michelle Wright’s choice of costume causes her to rather blend in to the film rather than standing out more. Likewise, Brian Wright and Gary Ugarek dress predominantly in black which also causes them to just blend in. Even as the every Joe and Jane the characters should have more distinguishing earmarks to make them stand out and set them apart in the film. It’s a part of the psychology of film but could have gone a way towards a visual establishment of character. Another issue with costuming is that the film does advance the timeline and there is very little sense of movement within the characters’ looks. A certain time has passed and things are bad yet the characters still look fresh as a daisy. It’s a minor issue but could have gone a long way towards giving a feeling of momentum and movement. As it stands it looks like perhaps more like 48 hours went by rather than the extended period of time the film suggests. There’s just no sign of any aging which could have helped with this point of the film. I will make a note that Gary’s dialog to Brian about the state of things could have been nicely capped if it all related to his loneliness as Michelle is the only female they apparently had contact with over a period of time. Overall the film could have benefited with more focus, perhaps exclusively on Michelle Wright’s character and her trials and tribulations rather than cutting between all the various characters. Her scenes rank as the best produced while the survival shelter really bogs down under the weight of so many extras and no strong identifiable heroic character. In between are Gary and Brian’s scene and the traffic jam. The traffic jam has decently choreographed action but once again relies on extras to do most of the acting work which waters it down. Once again, there is no identifiable strong lead so the scene comes off as very matter of fact and not as pointed with detail in relation to the film as a whole. The film doesn’t really have much to set it apart and isn’t breaking any new barriers in the living dead genre of horror films. It doesn’t try to be clever with it like the film I, Zombi which ultimately backfires nor does it completely bore someone to death like The Dead Hate the Living! It works with smaller production values but tries for a larger approach which rather overextends the resources of the film and causes a mixture of good and awful which leaves a decidedly mediocre product. The extensive use of untrained extras brought the acting level down and brought some wincing moments to the film to be certain. Overall it was a film with potential that could have been improved by more focus on the characters and a smaller scale of operations. Personal notes (Where I can use *I thought* *I think* *I perceived*) The film neither completely sucked nor ascended to heaven to walk among the gods. Certain parts were indeed awful but other parts had clever shots and acceptable acting for a first time endeavor. Unfortunately these come together in a head on collision which leaves Deadlands as an independent exercise in mediocrity. I expected Gary to be a horrible actor but he was just mediocre. Brian started mediocre but seemed to warm up to the camera as the movie progressed. The order of scenes shot may not be as chronological as it seems but all the lead actors seem to improve as the movie progresses. Brian Wright gets a warmer tone to his voice and Gary Ugarek becomes almost natural in his delivery. Neither are going to get Oscars for their performances but its obvious they started learning about acting as well as film making as the movie progressed. Michelle Wright was given what I consider to be the hardest role in the film and pulled it off with a good deal of aplomb especially for a first time actress. The extras killed me, though. Dave Cooperman was literally drowning among them in my opinion. Probably more should have been done to establish Cooperman’s character as a bit more heroic in the face of things but I see him as the principal character for the scenes outside of Michelle/Connor and Gary/Brian scenes. Did they ever go back and get the poor dog? The film was not entirely horrible and doesn’t rank in as the worst I’ve ever seen. It’s better than Day of the Dead 2: Contagium and done for pennies on Taurus’ dollars. Given my ‘history’ with Gary ‘DjfunkmasterG’ Ugarek it is expected that I would trash the film but it’s just not bad enough for that. I could have made a review spouting that the world’s most fragile lock held back a horde of undead, okay I mentioned it, or gone on about minor details that are noticeable but the idea was to be honest and not mean spirited. Overall it’s taken me longer to write this than watch the film. In the end Deadlands in neither horrible nor great. I give it a four out of ten which really isn’t bad for a first time endeavor. Although I might be cutting it some independent slack as some people call it. It didn’t totally bore me but also failed several times to amuse me. The Good- Michelle Wright The Throat Ripping Harry Knowles guest appearance Throat ripped victim as a zombie Nice cherry Mustang (not as cool as a Phantasm hemi-Cuda but hey) The Bad- The mob on the cop scene and zombies playing cat’s cradle with his jelly guts The extras carrying scenes National Guard Needed gunshot squibs and plenty more gunplay The Ugly- No gratuitous and unnecessary nudity The eye hook lock of doom Gary and Brian endorsing getting drunk and then playing with guns The message about the bars struck me as calling me dumb… Alright, I’m out. People may accuse me of being too forgiving and smooching true independent posterior when I should totally lambaste it but it was simply an alright effort by a couple of guys that like zombies. By comparison I gave Meat Market (a Canadian indie film from 2000) a seven out of ten so you can make of that what you will. It’s nothing spectacular in either the good or bad category. I’d say check it out if you’re a living dead completist or want to see what happens when a couple guys shell out some bucks and decide they are going to get off the sidelines and make a movie.