Zombies 2 marks either my third or fourth live Horror Remix experience.
Given my propensity for swigging as many $2 Free State draws as my budget and liver allow, it always gets a little fuzzy. Honestly, I’m pretty well able to recall the first half of every Horror Remix, but the last fifteen minutes to half hour are usually cloaked by a beer haze. Yes, I have a problem.
However, there’s nothing better on a Tuesday night than cut, chopped, and otherwise improved-upon horror movies.
The first film in this month’s Horror Remix is 1987’s The Video Dead. It is poorly acted, with a plot that seems to focus on a cursed television set that brings forth zombies upon the world. Some of the humor involves jokes that deal with a dog trying f**k skunks. This is the caliber of film with which we’re dealing.
It’s pretty much as fantastic as it sounds. All of the effort in this flick went into the special effects, which involve some truly stellar makeup … to a point. See, there are a couple zombies that look amazing – the main zombie, who has bone showing through the rotting flesh of his skull, with everything looking like it’s fresh from the grave is perhaps the best looking zombie I’ve seen outside of The Walking Dead. There’s also dessicated mummy-like corpse brides that make me shudder to recall.
Then, there’s a couple that look like the director watched a rough cut, realized the zombie count was pretty low for a film with “dead” in the title, and smeared toothpaste on a PA and told him to shamble. Still, bad as toothpaste zombie’s makeup might be, it distracts from the terrible music, which sounds like outtakes from the vaults of ’80s no-hits.
The plot makes absolutely no sense, and I’ve not the ability nor the desire to try to explain how the zombies appear or how they’re dispatched. Needless to say, it’s violent, gory, and might give you nightmares. Ignore the lack of logic, and you’ll be fine. Is The Video Dead good? No. But it’s fun enough that I’d easily and eagerly watch it uncut. Why? A zombie with a motherfucking chainsaw, that’s why.
I only managed to make it through this month’s Horror Remix for about an hour, before lack of sleep, beer intake, and the need to be at work five hours later sent me home to bed. You can still catch it, however – showdates and locations are at the Horror Remix site.
Also, check out my interview with series creator EJ Antilla.
Horror Remix: ZOMBIES 2 from Edward John on Vimeo.
Halloween Horror Marathon originally appears at Nick’s excellent blog Rock Star Journalist.
Nick is a self-described “rock star journalist,” which is strange, considering he’s married with two kids and three cats. This is just further proof that you can’t trust anyone online. In addition to his work for Scene-Stealers, Nick can be found bitching about music elsewhere on the Internet at his blog, Rock Star Journalist, and as Music Editor for The Pitch.
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