Gangs of the Dead Review

There are so many zombie films out there. Seriously, just got to your local video store, or go to your netflix account and type in the word zombie. There's so many films dedicated to the zombie genre that you could make a whole site dedicated to the genre and never really run out of movies. In fact one such site has a podcast attached to it and it exclusively reviews zombie movies. However with a genre so diluted, there are a lot of bad movies that come out, and lots of serious contenders for worst movie ever seen, by me. I've seen a lot of different terrible movies on this site, but they all seem to take a backseat, at least momentarily in some instances with Gangs of the Dead.

Gangs of the Dead has two plots that run side by side, and that makes for a big of a confusing plot. One plot seems to be stealing ideas from "Boyz in the Hood" and "Menace II Society", while the other plot relies heavily on something that is not too unlike "Creepshow".

What can I say? This movie doesn't have a lot of weight in the world of horror films, however, it has an interesting premise in a lot of different ways. The good points are easy to see, but are only given to hardcore definitions. For instance, the gore. The gore is done quite well at times, although, it's also easy to see the flaws as well. There are arms getting eaten and pulled apart and while one is releasing a fountain of blood while the other is just kind of there. This happens in various scenes, and while it's noticeable you can tell that the people behind the film edited as tight as they could without making it obvious to everyone that they screwed up the effects, or simply didn't have the budget to fill the scenes with buckets of gore. You sort of expect gore to be on the forefront in a zombie film, and this one has some spotty moments.

The other side of the plot involves a meteorite hitting the earth, which is the source of the zombie outbreak. Now, the reason the film is called "Gangs of the Dead" is because two rival Los Angeles gangs fight for control of their city, even if the zombie apocalypse is breaking off!

Gangs of the Dead is not necessarily a scary film. It's interesting at times, but it's definitely more of a novelty act. I liked it in small doses, the movie really didn't keep me too entertained with the way the subplots were working, but I did think it was a good try to make something out of a zombie genre that is as saturated as the vampire genre. I don't recommend this film to a lot of people, but you know what? It's worth at least one viewing, as it has enough of a zombie element to gain fans who are deeply passionate about the genre. I'm not that passionate, because this isn't leaving a lasting impression like other zombie films have in the past.



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