The Video Dead

Like so many horror films from the eighties, I remember being attracted to this movie cover at my local video rental store. Because I was still too young to watch it, the gatekeeper to my video rental experience (Mother Savage) would not let me rent it. When the time came that I was old enough to rent a movie of this kind, VHS was gone and video rental stores were dwindling. It is the old sad tale, Blockbuster moved in and my local store shut down. I could write (and may) a whole post on the films that I never saw on a Blockbuster shelf and this was one of them. Netflix came and killed Blockbuster. The Video Dead never appeared to me through that or any other streaming service. It had already become a distant memory, so I never hunted for it.

But, then came the day when I started to really focus on collecting films and I stumbled upon a cover on the Scream Factory website that triggered a flashback to my youth.

Ok, it is on a double feature disc so it is a bit small, but I still saw it and remembered wanting to rent it all those years ago. Here was my chance. I bought it, waited for it to be delivered, popped it into my player and…

It’s ok.

Now my story may sound like an epic tale that should end with a bang (good or bad), but it doesn’t. Sorry.

The Video Dead is a low budget zombie film centered around a cursed/possessed/supernatural TV set that acts as a portal into our world. Through this portal, zombies from a black and white horror film titled Zombie Blood Nightmare invade our reality and do what zombies do best. The only ones who can stop it are a few teens and a middle-age former owner of the evil TV.

The Video Dead will appeal to only a handful of audience members; the lovers of zombie films and B movies. Within those two groups, it already has a cult following and I can see the appeal. However, the casual movie watcher may find the poor acting hard to get past.

The setup for the story is a simple delivery error that sends the zombie-infested TV to a private residence instead of the Paranormal Institute. Zombies escape from the set and kill the homeowner. Then they wander off into the local woods for a time while the house with the TV in it is sold to new owners. Where were they during the presumably months it took to sell the house? Who knows.

Jeff (Rocky Duvall), the son of the new owners, finds the TV and turns it on. However, no zombies come out (just a naked woman), but the zombies suddenly decide to come out of the woods and wander into a neighbor’s house to start killing again. Now it is up to Jeff, his sister Zoe (Rozanna Augesen), and the previous owner of the TV, Joshua (Sam David McClelland) to send the zombies back before they kill more.

For a low budget film, The Video Dead does some things right and even gives the standard zombie storyline a few interesting twists. The first thing I have to comment on is that the movie is properly lit. I have seen so many low budget films that just can’t seem to get the lighting right; night scenes are either dark or shot during the day, indoor shots are either underexposed and grainy or lit to an inch of their life. Not this movie. It looks solid in the night scenes, the outdoor scenes, the indoor scenes and even has some lighting effects during some of the more special shots.

Another compliment for The Video Dead is the makeup for the zombies. It has a nice balance of grotesque and creative. We get zombies that are burned, rotting, and even blue-skinned. I found out through research that apparently each zombie had a back story that was never expanded on in the film. For instance, the blue-skinned zombie is blue because his cause of death was drowning.

The makeup is backed by some creative and decent looking special effects. One of the best scenes for me is the image at the top of this review, the zombie coming out of the TV, head first. The smoke and the lighting from the TV as the head pops out and turns, surveying its surroundings is beautiful and just plain fun to watch. Other effects include the traditional zombie flick gore (cuts, bashings, dismemberment, etc.) and they are quality practical effects for the level of this film.

Finally, the twists in the zombie lore. Besides these creatures coming from an evil TV, these zombies don’t die simply from “removing the head or destroying the brain”, they have two specific ways to die. Either be dismembered and left to rot (they can’t be buried) or be put into an inescapable room where they will then go crazy. Also, these zombies only become violent when they sense fear or aggression. They are jealous of the living and try to emulate and be accepted as alive. Otherwise, they will eliminate the living. Due to this need to pretend they are alive, they also have a fear of their reflection and can be driven away by mirrors. All these changes are creative and they do breathe life into a tired genre.

Unfortunately, the biggest drawback in this movie is the acting by the main non-zombie cast members. While Rozanna Augesen and Vickie Bastel (Bad Lieutenant, The Dead Pool) give passable performances, Rocky seems to struggle to deliver his lines with believability throughout the movie. Being one of the ones with high screen time, it really makes his scenes drudge on and on. Sam’s performance is uneven, occasionally joining Rocky in overacting his lines. Everyone else doesn’t have enough screen time to make much of an impression.

The story is filled with holes and ultimately a bit dull. As you watch the film, you will find yourself either questioning plot points or commenting on better ways the story could have gone. There are a lot of moments where the movie moves away from horror and begins to fall into comedy. Whether this is on purpose or not is hard to tell. If you are in it for the effects and kills, then you may not even care enough about the story.

As for the Scream Factory release of the movie? It has everything you can expect from a Scream Factory release. You’ll get good picture and sound quality and it comes with a few special features. These include the film’s trailer, behind-the-scenes photos, audio commentary with members of the cast and crew, and a Scream Factory exclusive interview with the make-up effects creator. I don’t want to address the other film on this double feature blu-ray (until I write a review of it), but if you want The Video Dead, it won’t be a bother to get another movie with it.

I really wanted to like this movie going in and while I write about a lot of its positives, the negatives are glaring. I have now watched this movie multiple times for this review and can confidently say that I will probably not watch it again for a long time. To me, it was just boring and I think that is how the average movie watcher will also feel about The Video Dead. As I said at the beginning of this review, If you have an undying love of everything zombie or B-movie then you may want this in your movie library. Otherwise, you won’t miss out on anything if you never see The Video Dead on your screen.

Rating:

Jack Savage:

While not as bad as some low budget horror films out there, this one makes the grave error of being boring.

Trailer:

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