The Dead Undead
(2010/USA)
‘‘Relax Honey, we’re the good guys’’
Modern day vampires, suckling off a civilised restricted diet of animal blood, become infected with a 21st century contamination equivalent of mad cows disease. The super fast degenerative affect turns them into Vamped up versions of excommunicated bad boy sprinter Ben Johnson, and Zack Snyder’s take on George A. Romero’s living dead. Amped up, running speed Zombie Vampires with a sadistic involuntary urge to feast on anything that lives, including their alter Vampire brethren. They become referred to as ZV’S … Zombie Vampires !.
Former pop boy band singer Luke Goss heads up an elite group of counter ZV commandos to stem the contamination, and contain the Zombie Vampire outbreak in a rural area, in order to stop the infestation of psycho blood suckers reaching the mass populated cities of America and beyond !.
Goss plays Jack, a seasoned vet trained in the art of weapons and warfare, one of the very best at what he does. He should be though, as he has had centuries to hone his skills. Jack is himself a Vampire !. One of the pioneers of living the new way, integrating with regular human society, and through the decades giving others the opportunity to follow. At the most desperate of times, and most prevalently at the juncture of deaths door, upon the field of battle, he appears to offer life … after death !. Those with a valiant code of honour rise once more to stand at Jack’s side, and continue the good battle against the evils of the new world.
The movie begins pretty much throwing its cast, and viewing audience, right into the thick end of a war of Vampires vs. Vampires. Five early twenty something friends, made up of three girls and two guys, are beginning their vacation, and on route hit car trouble on the back road of sparse-ville USA. With night time closing in on them they seek refuge in a seemingly deserted motel. As darkness envelopes outside the five friends soon realise that they are not alone. A room at this remote motel seems to endorse dead and breakfast !.
Creatures of the night befall upon the terrified young folk as they are forced to defend themselves against monstrosities hungering for their flesh and blood. Help arrives in the form of Jack and his small unit of ageless commandos, each honed in fighting skills born out through the passages of time. Nothing speaks the universal language of finality better than the modern dispatchers of ill doers than guns and swords. Jack and his timeless team have plenty of both, and the seasoned ability to deliver lethal strikes from all quarters. Torn from the vaunted valleys of Valhalla are star crossed Viking lovers Aries and Gabrielle, along with a Vietnam war veteran and a vengeance taking six shooter from the Old West. All are part of Jack’s flock of second chance souls, reborn to continue the fight against the dark denizens of the Earth.
The Action spurts forth as regular as the copious amounts of blood letting as the five friends are all but killed. A feisty female survives this night time ordeal, along with another male traveller, separated from his wife during another attack by the miscreants of the night. They hook up with Jack and his band of buccaneers to continue the fight against the pernicious blood suckers, in spite of the revelation of what their saviours truly are themselves !.
It’s good to get embroiled here, as a viewer, with The Dead Undead, and refreshing to get swept up in the silliness of yet another take of the Zombie / Dead lore. You can’t help but raise eyebrows, and develop a grin of delirious dumbfoundedness, at the audaciousness of the writer / director team of Edward Conna and Matthew R. Anderson as they serve up their own take on the tried and tested necessities in despatching the living dead. Here The Dead Undead scripture is clear, destroy the brain completely, sever the spinal cord, or expose to direct sunlight in order to kill.
Look out for a never too late very welcome cameo from Vernon Wells as an old school get the job done vampire storm trooper with a swagger. He brings added blood to this ‘vein’ attraction, and his welcomed reunion with Jack leaves the casket open for a fun sequel should The Dead Undead live up to patron expectation.
The plague of the ZV’S becomes a real cause of threat to the territories outside of the localised canyon that the good vampires fight to contain and even Jack needs help. His trusting earlier saved female cohort recognises that he requires a blood boost to invigorate his system, and restore him to his true mantle of a super vampire. The danger of even for a moment turning back to the ways of his violent past is something that she has not had time to fully appreciate, and by his own self imposed restraint Jack would not knowingly resort to !.
Prepare for a fang filled finale as Jack discovers the ZV’S main lair and the legions of the un-dead come for him, and those that still stand by his side. It’s time for the likeably cool hand Luke Goss to call on his Bros one more time, and to belt out a mighty hit that sets the Cat Amongst The Pigeons.
Movie Rating: 6/10
Review Paul Cooke
The Dead Undead (2010)
Director Matthew R. Anderson & Edward Conna
With Luke Goss, Laura Kenley,
Joshua Alba, Matthew R. Anderson, Cameron Goodman,
Lance Frank, Luke LaFontaine,
Brandon Molale, Spice Williams-Crosby,
Vernon Wells & Forrest J. Ackerman
Jesus, that promo art is absolutely AWFUL! I've always wondered what sellers are thinking when they cut and paste together something like that and hand out at film markets. If I were a buyer, I wouldn't look twice - or pick the flyer up.
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