Left for Dead

Anchor Bay

R4 DVD

Albert Pyun is a well known B Grade Hawaiian filmmaker who has directed a wide range of B Grade films including Radioactive Dreams, Cyborg, Captain America and even Kickboxer 4 !

He trained under the legendary Akira Kurosawa is most noted for being able to squeeze dramatic cinematography into otherwise low budget productions and this is much the case with Left for Dead. Left for Dead was shot in Argentina with a predominately Spanish-speaking cast and crew and to be honest there seems to be a lot lost in translation as well.

This is a film with an interesting premise, a sort of western meets ghost horror story, but it seems to be very high on gloss and low on substance. It has the feel of a long MTV music clip, the film editing style is quirky with a regular use of freeze frame, however, most annoying is the soundtrack seems way too loud for the dialogue and a lot of the dialogue is in Spanish with no sub titles ! It could also be said that much of the dialogue that is in English has such a heavy accent that you miss it anyway !

The story of Left for Dead is rather fun.

A preacher leaves his whore (this film seems to have a thing for using the word whore over and over again!). In fury and despair she and her “girls” and go on a rampage killing everyone in the township of Amnesty, down to the last woman and child. Why this occurs is hard to say ? Lots of women have lousy lovers or partners but they do not usually slaughter a whole town if they leave them, if they did, the world would be a much less populated place ! Anyway, back to the story, the preacher (Mobius) asks the devil to make him immortal so he can return to gain revenge, his wish is granted and he roams the streets of the abandoned town waiting his time. Until 15 years later.

Blake is on the run from bounty hunters and a group of woman who are seeking revenge after his has impregnated two of them and then made a runner. The women are a very bizarre bunch led by a man hating prophet Mary and all seem to be on a crusade to destroy “man –kind”, they even have their own man only town which is ruled by Mary with an iron fist.

They enter Amnesty to find him and the carnage starts. Left for Dead had lots of potential, the plot is a strange mixture of spaghetti western and a ghost and horror tale and the special effects are nicely done. The plot however leaves a lot to be desired and there is some real issues here with “whores” and revenge !! Even if we ignore the weakness of the plot and that is asking a lot, the filming style makes it top heavy with lots of meaningful freeze frames and creative editing and hence you end up with lots of froth but nothing underneath. After a while all the “profound” film style becomes annoying because it is masking a lack of content.

While I only had a promotional DVD (and it may be different on the full release), there was lots of Spanish dialogue without subtitles and the mix had the soundtrack way too loud and it drowned out what dialogue was in English and even then the actors had accents which made you constantly wonder what was said, couple this with a plot which has holes so big you can drive a truck through and the whole thing becomes nonsensical. (US reviewers seem to note that sub titles are on the Spanish dialogue but that at times it is nonsensical and even duplicates what has been just said in English !!)

Left for Dead ended up like a long music video clip, flash, brazen, some interesting scenes here and there, but not substantial enough for a full length film.