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Dead
Life
Directed By William Victor Schotten
Released: 2005
Starring: Michael Hanton, Ashleigh Holeman, Jayson Garity, and Lindsay
Gerish
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Released By Brain Damage Films 2005
Maxx (played by Michael Hanton) is repairing the house where his father
committed suicide. One night, he throws a party and invites many of his
friends to stay the night. By morning, a zombie plague has spread
throughout the city and Maxx and his friends must fight off the
flesh-munching hordes. The survivors venture out to find Maxx’s
girlfriend, Brianna (Ashleigh Holeman), before she ends up zombie food.
William Victor Schotten directs this lo-fi zombie epic. While the gore
quotient is high, the confidence of the filmmakers seems low. The script
is corny, repetitious, and overly complicated. In its favor, the film
certainly looks great. The grainy film stock and the muted colors add a
tone of creepiness to Dead Life that digital video (a staple of
recent indie horror) could hardly imitate. The shots are coolly composed,
unfurl frighteningly, and are seldom dull. There are a few shots that are
overly dark but nothing annoying or interruptive.
The acting from the principle characters of Dead Life is pretty
good. Michael Hanton’s character of Maxx is an interesting and haunted
hero. Jayson Garity is good as Rick, the dedicated friend (and black belt
in karate?). Producer/actor Joseph J. Zetts is very cool as the sarcastic
and levelheaded, Dave. I wanted to see more of Ashleigh Holeman’s
character, Brianna. Holeman is in and out of the film so fast that her
character never gets a chance to develop but seems intriguing nonetheless.
One of the things that hurts Dead Life is the time that is taken to
explain the zombie phenomenon. The news report in the middle of the film
is very dull and the computer generated scene of the zombie contagion
spreading into the water supply is pathetic. Given the dark and eerie mood
of the film, these scenes should have been abandoned entirely in order to
keep from breaking the motif.
Dead Life is a near masterpiece. While the look and feel of the
film is dark and gritty, there is some silliness that betrays the overall
mood of hopelessness and horror. The main characters almost have some
depth and the actors are up to the task. Unfortunately, the script doesn’t
flesh out the ideas that it presents for the players to work with. There
is plenty of gore for zombie film fans to enjoy and the soundtrack is good
(ranging from classic horror to death metal). Indie horror fans and
gorehounds should check out Dead Life. Where else can you see a
metalhead get his penis bitten off by a tattooed-zombie-hottie or a zombie
in a Corrosion Of Conformity t-shirt?
DVD Specs:
Dead Life looks good in widescreeen on this Brain Damage Films release, although
there are a couple of overly dark scenes. Audio is just okay and suffers
from some seriously blown-out dialogue that will have you scrambling for
your remote. There is a “making of” feature that shows how the film was
put together and a feature length audio commentary. There is a music video
for the band, Kitchen Knife Conspiracy, and several Brain Damage trailers.
The menu is also very cool.
For more information visit
Brain Damage
Films.
Or check out
Schotten Film Works.
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