PDA

View Full Version : The Dead Next Door



EvilNed
15-Sep-2006, 05:20 PM
What do people think of this film?

I just got it, and I don't really know what to think. Obviously, it's superlow budget and I knew it was going to be. With a movie like this, there's no need to develop characters or provide good dialogue, because no matter how hard you try it's just going to end up silly.

But still, I liked some parts of it. The acting was obviously crap and all that, but it was still fun to watch. It was damn gory, and the effects were good. It had some interesting ideas, for sure. The zombie cult, the mouthguards, the serum, the zombie squad, the protestors etc. etc. All of it was very cheaply done, but good ideas nonetheless.

My only main gripe was that all of the main characters were so damn stupid. Did the goverment even train these zombie troopers? I mean, in the first ten minutes of the film, two of the guys get bit in the most ridiculous situations. One guy gets bit by a severed head, that he KNOWS is there. Infact, he pretty much puts his fingers in the heads mouth. The other guy gets bitten by a zombie that's strapped down. How the hell do you manage that?

The zombies were also strange. Sometimes they were slow, sometimes they were fast. Sometimes they were insanely strong and filled with raged, other times they were slow and lunged at the characters with sort of half-assed "I-could-give-a-damn" attempts and were easily pushed away. There didn't seem to be any real zombie rules set down by the filmmakers. In one scene, it's demonstrated that shooting the zombies in the head does no good whatsoever. Even decapitating them will keep both the head and body alive. Yet later in the film, a zombie is killed by running over his head. Decapitating doesn't work, but crushing his head does?

Had a little more effort been put into the zombie aspects of the script, it would have been good. Now it's a bit to strange for me. These often very weak yet indestructable zombies rarely offer any serious threat to our heroes unless the script needs one of them bitten.

Cody
16-Sep-2006, 12:02 AM
It was a bit to corny for me but none the less a a zombie film that has been some what of a success

kidgloves
17-Sep-2006, 09:29 PM
I thought it was ok. It confused me though because it looked like a low budget movie with a decent budget if that makes any sense.
The character names were quite amusing.

DeadJonas190
18-Sep-2006, 04:35 AM
It's alright. I haven't watched it since the night I bought it which was sometime last year. I may watch it again just because I don't remember a lot about it except for the bad acting.

dikdik
18-Sep-2006, 08:49 AM
One of the characters sounded really familiar too...

Fulcifan91
18-Sep-2006, 03:51 PM
I love this film. In addition to that i loved the homage's of the character names (Savini, Raimi, etc.) Bruce Campbell did the dubbing for Raimi in the film.

I thought it had great gore, and a cool story. Shot on (I think?) 8mm film. The newest realease is awesome, the prior one was so dark and grainy you could hardly see the picture.

Debbieangel
18-Sep-2006, 07:50 PM
I didnt see this film and by the comments it sounds like I better try to find it somewhere to rent...the prob for me as always is the places around here dont have alot of zombie movies..I guess I will have to bid on ebay maybe I can get it for a buck or two. I have learned a lesson after buying Undead at full price I mean its ok but not worth the full price!! lol

Dawg
21-Sep-2006, 07:51 PM
The Dead Next Door was directed by J.T. Bookwalter who lived in and filmed in in Akron, Ohio about a decade or so ago. He went out West and has been making films with Full Moon Pictures since.

Kind of a legend in certain aspects of the B-Movie kind.

:dead: Dawg

I, Zombie
22-Sep-2006, 05:32 AM
Saw it several years ago & didn't like it for much of the same reasons already listed. In low budget films I know that bad acting can't be helped sometimes, but if you're really a fan of the genre, you should know not to put stupid things in the movie (fast AND slow zombies, dumb troopers, etc.). Just makes us think you're trying to pull a fast one over on us.

Romero did it right the first time & every time since. And this film came out over 20 yrs. after Romero's first one!

Besides my dislike for the film, I do want to watch it again.

Cody
22-Sep-2006, 06:10 AM
the homage was def awesome

dmbfanintn
22-Sep-2006, 03:44 PM
Some things to remember when talking about the Dead Next Door:

JR Bookwalter was 17 years old when he made this film, SEVENTEEN!!!!!

It was shot on super 8mm film.

ALL of the audio was deemed unusable upon completion of the film and the entire audio track was recorded in a studio.

That familiar voice you heard, Bruce Campbell. He did alot of the voice overs for the new audio track. Why Bruce, look in the credits for who the Executive Producer was, "The Master Cylinder" that was Sam Raimi. He financed a very large portion of this film.

the film actually took over two and a half years to get finished and has, at times, been called the most expensive Super8 movie ever made!

The mass zombie scenes were filmed on location in Akron and a ad was placed in the local paper for people to come out and be zombies, you see the results on the film.

The Washington DC scene in front of the White House was filmed guerilla, without permission.

and finally

HE WAS SEVENTEEN!!!!!!

I love the Dead Next Door for the gore and the cheese factor, and everytime i watch it, I know I never would have made that at 17 years old!

slickwilly13
22-Sep-2006, 06:24 PM
I just about fell off my bed laughing when Rami threw the grenade into the trees before driving through them. Only a character such as Rami could pull that off. *L*