Episode 201: The Dead Next Door

Ok we are here and back after the 200th episode extravaganza, back on the zombies, and the DVDs too.

Now this is THE DEAD NEXT DOOR

1989 written, produced and directed by JR Bookwalter. His debut too. And he did the soundtrack… another one of those

Steph described this as another from the bargain bin 2/10… which is a really bad sign…

The blurb is that

In the near future, the world falls victim to a plague of violent carnivorous undead humans, and a black-ops elite team of soldiers, nicknamed the "Zombie Squad", has been enlisted by the government as exterminators to control the growing epidemic. While on a series of routine containment missions, the soldiers stumble upon a mysterious religious cult which wishes to protect and enable the zombies, believing them to be a punishment ordained by God. Within their compound may be a cure to the virus causing the plague.

It actually gets 5/10 on IMDB which is somewhat surprising

It cost $125,000 with Sam Raimi some of the money of Evil Dead 2 t produce, Bruce campbell has a voice role and Evil dead 2 co-writer scott Spiegel appears as Richards. The film was shot on Super-8, which is an amateur grade film generally only used for making home movies. Everyone involved worked on the film for a deferred salary.[3] The film is notable for highly graphic gore effects.

Thoughts? Well the title is awful. Next door being the church in relation to Bow's place? And the DVD cover is very misleading.

It had ambition, a lot of people, and I think it deserves more credit for trying to make something on a shoes string. With a proper budget this could be classed alongside many of the 70s and 80s zombies, but wont be because of the poor camera quality.

4/10