The Dead Next Door (1989)

The government sets up a Zombie squad after an epidemic has made the world run rampant with living corpses. Raimi, Mercer, Kuller, and others head off to Ohio to try and find a cure to the epidemic but soon run into a crazy cult of zombie lovers who are set on preserving the zombies and letting a new world be born because they believe that it's God's will. When Mercer gets infected with the zombie virus, Raimi and the others must work quickly to find a cure and avoid the cult.

UHHH! HORRIBLE

I love zombie movies..so I bought this one to try it out. Don't waste your money!!! I love a b-rated zombie movie more than the average person so it says something when I say this movie sucks!!! November 19, 2008

Awful & Pathetic

The worst zombie flick I have ever seen...bad filming; cheap effects. A lot of bad zombie movies make up for their low budget with damn good zombies and lots of gore and humor... or a spooky atmosphere/music at the very least... In this movie the only difference between the zombies and the regular folk is that their faces have blue and red paint smeared on them. The bonus material is more interesting than the actual feature movie...and even that was lame. I think it's got high ratings only because the zombie story was different here from a lot of typical zombie scenarios. May 20, 2008

A fine zombie horror comedy!

A virus has accidently been unleashed and changes humans into vicious flesh-eating zombies that begin to attack the nation. The goverment sends out a special zombie killing task squad to elimiate the dead and it's pro-zombie protesters in Ohio where they must try to find out the source of the virus that started it all.

A fun mix of off the wall humor and gory zombie horror with some action! it happens to be the most expensive independent movie shot on Super-8 film ever with 4 years in the making. Produced by Sam Raimi whom is credited as "The Master Cylinder" in the credits, Bruce Campbell does a dub voice over on a couple of actors and stars "Evil Dead 2" co-scripter Scott Spiegel. It has be a cult film that has gained a small following since it was first released on video, fans of the genre will recongize some of the jokes and references to other horror flicks especially Romero's movies, it's a blast.

This special Edition DVD from Anchor Bay contains good picture and sound quality with some cool extras like an audio commentary, trailer, a featurette, behind the scenes still gallery, auditions, deleted scenes, music video, production still gallery, video storyboards and FrightVision 2000 Reunion.

Also recommended: "Re-Animator", "Night of the Living Dead (1968 and 1990)", "Dawn of the Dead (1978)", "Day of the Dead (1985)", "Land of the Dead", "Diary of the Dead", "Planet Terror", "The Stuff", "Shaun of the Dead", "Versus", "Demons", "Night of the Creeps", "Dawn of the Dead (2004)", "The Return of the Living Dead Trilogy", "Let Sleeping Corpses Lie (a.k.a. Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue)", "From Dusk Till Dawn", "Dead Alive (a.k.a. Braindead)", "Night of the Comet", "Hell of the Living Dead (a.k.a. Night of the Zombies)", "Zombie (a.k.a. Zombi 2)", "Nightmare City (a.k.a. City of the Walking Dead)", "Grindhouse", "Fido", "Evil Dead 1 & 2", "Phantasm", "Resident Evil Trilogy", "Zombi Holocaust", "Bio-Zombie", "Dead and Buried", "Bad Taste", "City of the Living Dead", "House By The Cemetery" and "The Beyond". May 15, 2008

Building a stronger rapport with the undead

This movie is an advocate for zombie rights. It points out how Jesus rose from the grave too, just like our zombie buddies. Who can argue?
Ahh man, this movie is just good clean fun. Well, not so much clean. Good blood-soaked fun. It feels almost like an Evil Dead Sequel.
It does pay blood dividends to Raimi and Romero. A few things set DND apart, most noticeably the zombie cult group. People performing religious slayings in order to feed their ugly transformed family and friends. There are some extreme fanatic religions out there, so this isn't too big of a leap of faith.
Other zombie monkey wrenches thrown in--zombs using payphones, hitchhiking, and my favorite--one had a computer voice box installed so it could communicate. Too funny hearing the national anthem sung in a dreadful computer-generated zombie voice! Way better than hearing those little chipmunks.
So, what are you waiting for? Get your daily dose of gore.
Oh yeah, bathing in blood helps purify your sins. 4.5 stars
March 9, 2008

Gory gore galore.

Filmed on a 8mm camera and no budget, dispite it's flaw's, J.R. Bookwalter's Dead Next Door is a highy underrated little zombie gorefest with a somewhat original story. It start's out as your normal zombie pic with horde's of the undead taking over the country (a la Dawn of the Dead), but then put's a spin on the genre by introducing a zombie cult. There is a cult that believes the zombie outbreak is Gods' work and the zombie's were sent by him to purify the nation. They harness the zombie's, feed them, keep them as pet's, and encourage their brain-eating behavior. I think it's a really cool and original premise for a zombie film. It also pay's great homages to the one's before it like Evil Dead and Romero film's, one character is even named Romero King and another character is named Raimi. Of course there is bucket's of gore, tounge's being ripped out, dismemberment, gut munching, decapitation, neck ripping disembowelment, intestine chomping, you know the usual.
Dead Next Door is one of my favorite zombie flick's, sure it's not up to Romero or Raimi caliber, but it does put a fun and original spin on the zombie genre itself. Highly recommended.
January 8, 2008

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