Dead and Deader

Anchor Bay

R4 DVD

Landing in Cambodia, a U.S Special Forces team is sent to investigate a missing unit. It finds all the members of the missing team dead and a strange mutant form of scorpion isolated in a specimen case. Before they can investigate they are attacked by flesh eating zombies and the team wiped out. Their bodies are returned to the States for autopsy and burial, but just before the first incision of the autopsy, Lieutenant Quinn (Dean Cain) wakes up ! However, there is a problem, he has no pulse or heat beat, he is clearly dead yet still obviously still living. Soon they realize he not only has greater strength than a normal person but phenomenal healing qualities.

As the doctors attempt to examine him he convulses and taking a scalpel removes one of the scorpions from his arm. It seems these little blighters cause the dead to return to the land of the living. If you catch them quick enough you remain with brain function, though still needing doses of raw meat to stave off the “hunger”, but if they reach your heart you become one of the rampaging flesh eating living dead.

Soon Quinn realizes that the rest of his team have not been so lucky and are now out trolling for flesh. He can sense their presence and sets off to neutralize them. Before he can get to him, one of his mates infects the army base and a splatterfest begins with heads flying into fans, an arm in a mincemeat machine and lots more fun gory action.

Since the army chef Judson (Guy Torry) has also been implicated in the killings, he teams up with Quinn and sets out to round up the zombies before the infection spreads. Of course nobody believes them and soon they are not only fighting against the zombie hordes but evading the police as well. The teaming of Quinn and Judson allows for a “buddy” element to enter the film with lots of humour and jokes. It is this combination which really turns Dead and Deader into a successful zombie comedy.

The plot becomes more complicated when a group of redneck bikers try and hold them for a possible police reward but soon the bar is attacked by zombies and a new series of over the top scenes unfold including a rather entertaining zombie dwarf whose bite lands in just the wrong place ! At this stage Quinn and Judson are joined by Holly (Susan Ward) and together they work to track down the last remaining member of the original squad. Things are not as easy as they seem as soon they are captured by a nefarious doctor who being riddled with cancer sees the scorpions as a last chance for extending his life.

This is a fun, B Grade zombie romp, filled with atrocious acting, silly dialogue and some great special effects. The zombie fight scenes are deliberately exaggerated and add to the humour of the whole experience, expect lots of green blood and gore !

Also features an audio commentary with writer Steve Kriozere and producer Mark Altman, Raising the Dead: The making of Dead and Deader and a Photo gallery.

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This review will appear in Volume 2 No.5 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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