The Dead and the Damned Review

Have you ever seen a movie where the company you see it with is far better than the movie itself? This happened to me during my viewing of this film. The production company sent me The Dead and the Damned, and wow, it wasn’t half bad upon first glance, but it wouldn’t be the greatest movie told, especially as the story and plot unfolded. I do recommend seeing horror movies with a woman, especially one that is lovely enough to put up with bad cinema, I am very blessed to have found someone willing and cheery about watching such a film.

The movie opens with a gunfight, and immediately starts to get on my nerves. The unfortunate part about the film is that they use cg blood throughout. It’s painfully obvious that they aren’t using real blood effects, which plagues the production and visualizations during the scenes here and throughout the zombie scopes.

The Wild West is no place for zombies, and that’s what we see as the film progresses. There are a few plot points, mainly dealing with a bounty hunter searching his next bounty. This sequence, the journey to the bounty, the process of getting bait, and traveling is painstakingly shown in what seems like slow motion. There are a lot of points in this film that have no dialogue, and despite the “Western” theme, the music is modern, rock, and samples that just seem way too forced.

The good stuff starts amidst the bounty being taken, as a weird rock emits a gas that turns everyone in a small mining town into flesh eaters. The zombies are fast, relatively dumb, and range from insane to smart. They go down differently than some zombies. At one point a zombie is punched in the face, and that kills him…yep!

As far as zombie movies go, this is a lackluster attempt to capitalize on the genre. However, mixing western with horror is great, and there are some great points with the cinematography in tact. I liked the locales, and liked a few of the shots, but the whole monologue section between the Indian and the cowboy just seemed forced, and with no flash back type frame set, the character building seemed tired.

The Dead and the Damned was not a great movie by any stretch, and is one of my least favorite zombie films. However, the director and writers tried their hand at a unique slice of horror pie. I for one, at least watch the whole thing, and it was made a little better by my amazing friend, that sat with me through this, and made me popcorn too. She’s dreamy, this film is not.