And anchovies, as it turns out... | Dead Hate the Living [VHS]

Not great, but not to bad either. | Dead Hate the Living [VHS] | Ariauna Albright, Brett Beardslee

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	• Dead Hate the Living [VHS] Ariauna Albright, Brett Beardslee Coast Capital Partne, 2000 view larger image
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Stop Messing With Dead Corpses!

Far from perfect. Far from mediocre. I'm very proud to welcome The Dead Hate The Living into the ranks of the "good zombie movies". It's not in the same batch with Romero or Fulci, but this one helps bridge the gap between the "greats" and the "downright awful". I think there has long been a big discrepancy between the two extremes with not a lot of movies falling in that mid-range.

The movie revolves around a young director, named David Poe (Eric Clawson), making his first feature film, and it just happens to be about zombies. Oh, the irony of it all! Do you think he planned it that way? Of course he did, the character of David is really based on much of the life of director David Parker. David Poe's sisters and friends round up the cast and crew for the film. They've decided to break in to an abandoned hospital to make their film. And we all know what happens to people in horror films who do anything illegal or immoral...they die. Not to give anything away, but I'm sure we all know that by now. It wouldn't have been so bad had they left the corpse they found alone. And we all know what happens when you use a real corpse as an unpaid cast member in your new movie that you're making. Well, okay, so that one's not as obvious maybe, I've tried to tell you guys this, but I'll repeat it again for those who missed it. Don't mess with dead things! Just don't do it, it will save you all a lot of pain and grief.

The Dead Hate the Living was a little slow to take off but once it did, it kept the tension till the end. Don't expect to jump out of your seats during the picture, but expect to get some creepy atmosphere. Parker brings us two of the more intimidating and scary zombies you'll ever see.

There was copious amounts of gore, but none of it took away from the story, but rather served to compliment it. I think real horror fans will enjoy this movie because it was directed by a guy who really loves the genre and you can tell. Parker pays homage to many of the greats who have come before him, notably the likes of Carpenter, Fulci, Romero, and Raimi. He also pays homage to great make-up artist and actor Tom Savini and the best S-Mart employee of them all, Bruce Campbell. I challenge you to watch this movie, pay attention to the details, and see how many references to other movies you can find.

If this movie had a higher budget they could have done a lot more with it and it could have been really amazing! That said, I think that Parker did a great job with what he had.

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And anchovies, as it turns out...

The Dead Hate The Living (2000) Full Moon Pictures brings out a rare effort on their part that isn't a sequel to one of their many franchises. This one is an old fashioned zombie romp, starting off with the well worn premise of young filmmakers shooting their low budget horror movie in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's because the huge warehouse place they've picked was formerly the home of a long haired mad scientist type desperate to bring the dead back to life. As the movie savvy youngsters find out, he succeeded, as they find themselves up to their armpits in hungry walking corpses. The director of this flick, Dave Parker, was an editor on a lot of Full Moon's trailers, and his direction and editing are his strongest points. His script is not quite as well put together, and acknowledging its own lack of originality with references to other horror movies doesn't make up for it. There's an awful lot left unexplained, and his stylistic touches aren't enough to make the viewer overlook that. Still, the performances aren't bad for the most part, the effects are decent, and the money was probably better spent on this than it would have been another Puppet Master clipathon/sequel. It's worth watching for fans, just not the small gem the filmmakers are obviously hoping it will be.

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Not great, but not to bad either.

This was a surprisingly decent B movie. The effects pretty much sucked, but the zombie makeup was actually a lot better then I was expecting. Over all it almost seemed a bit of a spoof on zombie flicks, and was rather enjoyable. Can't say I'd look to buy it, but is worth seeing.

What could be better than a bunch of Italian horror buffs making their own zombie flick in a spooky abandoned hospital? Being attacked by the real thing, of course. The Dead Hate the Living echoes with such American genre classics as Phantasm, The Evil Dead, and Scream, but it's ultimately a love letter to the nightmarish scenarios and visual freakouts of Italian horror pictures. The hapless crew discovers a creepy black altar (complete with its own decorative corpse) and incorporates it into their film. When their scripted ceremony opens a portal from another dimension and unleashes an army of rampaging zombies, the hallways become flooded in red and blue and green pools of light for no good reason other than it looks cool. The hospital is suddenly adrift in an alternate reality because... well, just because. Writer-director Dave Parker never tries to explain the madness (a zombie's exclamation, "Hate the living! Love the dead!" is as much motive as we're offered), choosing instead to simply plunge viewers into the inspired mayhem. What makes it all work is a love of the genre, a cast of energetic, likable performers, cool zombie makeup, and a sure, stylish hand. Horror movie mavens will pick up on oodles of clever references (a bumper sticker that reads "Fulci lives"; a zombie king commanding, "Make them die... slowly"), but these are merely asides in an accomplished, clever, and remarkably entertaining indie horror riff. --Sean Axmaker

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