You need to try really hard to screw up a zombie movie. When the majority of your cast doesn't have a brain to think with, there's not a lot left to do. Still, Dead Men Walking manages to be as bland and dull as the worst of the low budget horror movies that litter video store shelves.
With a solid opening depicting an early zombie massacre, Walking starts off with potential. As the shooter is taken to a prison for confinement, the infection he receives from the fight begins to spread. It's a standard set-up as inmates begin puking up all sorts of gunk for a maximum gross-out factor.
There's almost nothing here to follow. The lead character is batted around between various actors before apparently landing on the shoulders of Bay Bruner, playing the role of a CDC official tasked with containing the problem. The story is absent entirely after the initial set-up.
For a zombie movie though, plots rarely matter. It never really matters why zombies are munching on people; it's how they munch on people. In this case, it's a repetitive special effect that involves a headshot, limb tear, or intestines ripped out. The latter is used repeatedly in the final act, and it looks like the same props are used each time out.
Walking tries to shock a little. Kids are shown on screen being eaten alive, and then even more surprising, wiped out by a shotgun after their zombie transformation is complete. In one of the movie's many questions, there is no indication why these kids are here, why the mother stands by watching as they get ripped apart, or why the little girl laughs as the zombie enjoys his meal.
Annoying filters, death metal and strobe effects do nothing to help matters. Their only purpose is to make the viewing process miserable. The movie never looks expensive (and it wasn't at $500,000) and these effects do not make it look any more professional.
Credit is slightly due for the ending, which takes a nice and unexpected exit. Making it there will be the challenging part. Dead Men Walking is dull and lifeless, and that has nothing to do with a bad pun about its characters. Even at a brisk 80 minutes (including credits), this one feels like four hours.
Article comments
1 - Iloz Zoc
Matt,
Thank you for suffering through this stuff so I don't :)
I notice kids are being shown more and more in horror films, especially on the receiving end of the horror. Interesting. I am not a big fan of that, but if it's in context...I suppose it's okay. Sounds like this film missed the mark in many areas of context, though.
2 - Victor Plenty
Kids in horror movies go way back, don't they? In zombie movies, at least as far back as 1968's Night of the Living Dead. Outside the zombie subgenre other examples include Village of the Damned and The Omen. Admittedly, the children in those pictures aren't quite so much at the receiving end of the horror, but they're pretty much right in the middle of it.
Many other examples probably exist, but I'm no expert on horror cinema.
And of course, you may have heard of this quaint little art house film called The Exorcist, in which a number of not very nice things happen to a young child.
3 - vinny petaccio
hi does anyone know what bands were on this movie please email me them