D V D C R Y P T

THE DEAD HATE THE LIVING!

Directed by Dave Parker
Produced by Charles Band, Kirk Edward Hansen, Dana Scanlan, & Mona C. Vasiloiu
Written by Dave Parker & Paul J. Salamoff
Cast: Eric Clawson, Jamie Donahue, Matt Stephens, Brett Beardslee, Wendy Speake & Kimberly Pullis

1999/90 mins/Color/2.0 DD
1.33:1/English/US/NTSC Region 1

Review from the Full Moon DVD

A bunch of indy horror filmmakers, lead by David Poe (Clawson playing a screen version of director Dave Parker), are filming a zombie flick in an abandoned hospital. After running through the usual troubles of low budget filmmaking, the blonde babe, Topaz (Jamie Donahue), finds a coffin where the corpse of Dr.Eibon is in. The crew decide to use the "real" dead body for the film thus opening the lair's of the dead.

Director and writer Dave Parker is an avid horror fan but the constant references to the genre he included in the script becomes annoying and ends up hurting the film. It's one thing to pay homage to the classics but it's another thing to have the film rely on them to make up for the lack of ideas.

The part when the Rob Zombie lookalike, Dr Eibon, says "Make them die... slowly" is there for no purpose. We all know of CANNIBAL FEROX and don't need to be remind of it. As for the ending, it's a direct rip off from Lucio Fulci's THE BEYOND. You'll see what i mean after watching it. Plus the whole film within a film is really getting old and has been done to death in the last few years. One last thing, never EVER use cgi if you can't make it right and this goes for everyone. TDHTL has one of the worst cgi scene ever, at the end when the zombies get burned we get to see this through the worst cgi fire fx ever.

To tell you the true, i am having a hard time reviewing this film since i've talked a lot of time with Dave, he's a big horror fan and a nice guy but i feel like i have to tell it like it is. By the way, look for a cameo of Parker as the store clerk.

Full Moon went all out on this DVD. The film is presented in it's original 1.33:1 (full screen) ratio. The colors are rich and vibrant, there's absolutely no signs of compression or artifacts. The 2.0 Dolby Digital audio track sounds pretty good, it's punchy and clear. This DVD is filled with extras, first we have a good commentary track with the director and some of the cast. Parker really goes into all the details of the film but he's almost the only one talking during this track while the others do some comments every now and then as it seems like they are more preocupied drinking beer then having an input.

There's a very good and interesting behind-the-scenes documentary that is filled with lots of interviews with the director, actors and crew and cool behind-the-scenes stuff. We also get a music video for Penis Flytrap directed by Parker that features some of the cast of TDHTL, about 15 production artwork, 15 photos and a Memories of the Dead where we get recollection of everyone on the film.

The DVD comes in a keep case, there's no booklet and the film is separated in 30 chapters. The menu has some animation of a zombie breaking a window like in the beginning of the film and music playing in the background.

A good disc for an average horror film.

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