Sunday, January 15, 2006

Dead & Rotting (2002)

     “Do you know what its like to be dead and rotting?” I’m not sure, but I figure it’s a little like watching this movie. Your brain turns to mush and your guts to jelly.

First off, we need to get this film’s pedigree out of the way. It’s a Full Moon picture, now distributed by Tempe Entertainment. Right off, let me say that I have always enjoyed J.R. Brookwalter’s movies. He’s brave and honest enough to admit that much of his early work is really bad, and has even released three of them under the umbrella of the “Bad Movie Police”. So although some his recent stuff is much improved, and quite enjoyable, there are no delusions of grandeur here.

And the director/writer of Dead and Rotting, David P. Barton, has worked on TONS of great flicks as a special affects artist. This is his only directorial credit. That’s just as well. But he worked often with Charles Band and JR Brookwalter. Obviously he talked them into letting him direct this flick. They both should have known better. The script that he wrote could have been okay, with a little help. Many of these actors have turned in good performances (I especially like Trent Haaga, he is awesome in Suburban Nightmare!) A more experienced director could have gotten better performances out of these actors, and this movie would have been much improved.

And, of course, there’s Debbie Rochon. I look forward to meeting her in a few weeks at TX Frightfest. She has an awesome scene coming (naked, natch) out of a bathtub. Its really nice. That single scene adds a beer all by itself.

I also like the “turning the victims into plants” idea. It looked kinda phoney, but its kind of a creepy, especially in a “earth magic” kinda movie like this.

The commentary is nice, and there’s some good featurettes, including a documentary on the history of David Barton with JR Brookwalter. I liked all the background that’s not even included on the excellent Special Edition of Brookwalter’s seminal (and GREAT) work “The Dead Next Door”.

Three out of five beers. (Thanx Debbie!)