DOA Review: Dead Walkers: Rise of the 4th Reich (2013)

CASE NUMBER #0019

Yes, the 19th grave exposed in DOA, another examination of a wretched film herein making it case number 19 as these reviews become more of an autopsy than anything else, exposing the corpse of a film and understanding what ruined it and ultimately causing harm to the fans of horror. As most of society knows World War II ended in 1945 with the Nazis failure of world domination and the plague of sickness from spreading any further into society, many scientists and military elite escaped into the shadows of daily life. Director and writer Philip Gardiner, known for his work on documentaries on the subjects of The Illuminati and Area 51; also a few horror productions such as Exorcist Chronicles, takes this story, and indulges in combining many conspiracy theories. Those theories include teams of men and women resurrecting the Nazi Occult machine and hence bringing Fourth Reich to the world in the present day.

Gardiner’s film adds to the horror’s subgenre, Nazi Zombies, these conceptual films rank with approximately 32 films over 71 years, dating back to Steve Sekely’s Revenge of the Zombies (1943) starring the magnificent John Carradine, who later worked on Shock Waves (1977) another Nazi Zombie flick with the talented Peter Cushing. This film doesn’t directly fit into the Naziploitation, as it lacks in many areas and misses greatly on the exploitation. However most recently adding to this subgenre is the 2015 film from director David B. Stewart’s Reichsfuher-SS (2015), basing itself from history of the SS Officer Heinrich Himmler.  In fact, watch that movie, instead of this pitiful excuse of ‘hey look what I did with a video camera’ mess.

AUTOPSY OF THE FILM:

The film’s title is a dead giveaway of the conceptual storyline, this new Reich obviously plays off the title of hit television show The Walking Dead, by borrowing the term for the undead as ‘walkers’ and hence this new army for the Nazis as zombie troops.  Oh, the nightmare on the screen not worth seeing, seriously watch something else. After a failed attempt from the British secret service, and a second team assembles to discover the rumors of a rising mysterious army, the team lead by Alpha One – oh how original – (Philip Berzamanis)with only himself returning from the mission, knows the truth and needs to expose the darkness to the light, and crushing the evil empire again. He debriefs superiors of the mission, filled with flashback sequences, which not only puzzles the psychiatrists, but also anyone crazy enough to attempt this mess. Gardiner uses a fish eye lens, and various hues most likely to simulate the nightmare and hallucinations that Alpha One encountered, however, this usage tends for an over stimulated reoccurrences for the audience enjoyment, which struggles early and often. The production comes from Chemical Burn Entertainment; should include more extras such as a director commentary to explain this technique to viewers, rather leaving it unfounded and confusing. It literally plays hopscotch with the plot, direction, and just spins the viewers mind into nothingness, no research just whatever comes to mind splat that onto the screen and hurry along. Alas, examination reveals no extras available on the screener, except for a weird music video.

At times the film shows a music video methodology, while not going to the absurd video game filming method of House of the Dead (2003) the film leaves a lot to wonder if more of the script focused on a conspiracy standpoint rather that a spying action flick, without much action or spying for that fact. THIS IS NOT A BOND MOVIE! Hell it isn’t even Spy Hard (1996), with Leslie Nielsen, this movie doesn’t know what it want to do except bored the audience and confuse them constantly.

FINDINGS OF POSSIBLE DEATH:

Sadly, the film ranks in a miserable 77 minutes in length, well below the standard 90 minutes for a horror film, perhaps displaying of the power of the rising walker army would lengthen the production and added scenes that are more gruesome. Dead Walkers currently contains the requirements in horror films, the T&A, the extreme language but lacks on the violence and brutalization, and just where are the Nazi Zombies, either on a holiday or starring in someone else’s Nazi horror movie. While the close-ups show makeup tricks of the horror, the overall production just ruins any visual entertainment.

SUMMARY OF CASE AND AUTOPSY:

The movie languishes in a muddy trench on the scarred frontline ,however, if one wishes to venture forth and conquer the Nazi Zombie sub-genre of horror, go ahead just forget about this flick and likely Zombie Isle (2014); too. This film just lacks in every manner, a list of charges far too long to list, save yourselves – runaway NOW!

Normally a soundtrack for a horror film, contains an edgy sound, Dead Walkers does not do that rather in the credits lies a music video, from the band Great Northern Hotel, mellow track entitled, “Cutz and Collides”, why this certain song inclusion occurs, simply unsure as various misaligned film shots occur in the background. Want to hear the track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBhn-bgdKDk

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2909482/

Available on DVD for $13 – https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Walkers-Rise-Fourth-Reich/dp/B00PNQNAB2

IMDb Rating: 1.4/10

DOA Rating: 1.3/10

Trailer:

About Baron Craze 33 Articles
Consider by many as a Horror Historian, writing detail reviews on many sites, with the first horror I ever saw was Grizzly (1976), from there I discovered Vincent Price and Christopher Lee movies, and of course Universal Monsters. I never watch the films just once, no rather multiple times, as I got older become both a completeist (the goal to watch all the horror films possible) and started to research many films to new depths of interest. Many of my reviews contain vast amounts of details about each film, in a fair review. In addition, a screenwriter and actor and producer of Blind Documentary, called A World Without Boundaries, and podcast DJ of 4 weekly shows 2 metal and 2 horror theme. Enjoy all things Horror, Gothic, and Macabre. Favorite Quote of Mine: "The Extreme Makes a Lasting Impression!"