So…The Video Dead…
I’d never heard of the Video Dead, recently I was looking to “face my fears” with a film called Terror Vision, which I plan to review as well. I looked for a copy of Terror Vision and I found Scream Factory released a Blu Ray 2-pack with The Video Dead. When I checked Amazon, they were selling the 2-pack for 14 bucks and I was sold. Two 80s horror movies for 14 bucks on Blu Ray and another addition to my Scream Factory collection, yes please.
Ugh, the Video Dead is not a good movie. I wish that is all I could write about the movie, but I do want to get in to a couple of “take-aways”.
What was good about the Video Dead?
- It is a low budget, straight to VHS horror movie.
- There is a chainsaw scene and the effects are pretty good.
- Zombie dinner party? Apparently if you’re nice to the zombies, they will hang out an have dinner.
- The concept, the idea of the dead coming from the television set was pretty cool.
The film begins with a cranky old man who is writer Henry Jordan, he lives on Shady Lane. He gets a unexpected crate delivered to him, with an old and kind of trashed TV within the crate. The TV shows a zombie movie, which looks more interesting than the actual movie, “Zombie Blood Nightmare”. Well, Henry unplugs the TV, but it does not stop the zombies from coming from the TV. The delivery guys come back for the crate only to find Henry dead at the door…ok.
Three months later a new family is going to move into the house. They send ahead their daughter and son. The son finds the TV in the attic which releases the zombies. A man from Texas comes trying to get the TV, which would solve their problems, but fails.
The long and short of this movie, poor writing, worse acting and lackluster effects. I mean, the make-up could have been better, but for the most part, looked like story bought masks and one of the zombies was blue. The blue, teen jock zombie could also pay tribute to Dawn of the Dead. God, this movie was a mess. I had very little hope going in to the movie, but there was a feel like it could be one of those hidden gems. I was wrong on that front.
I normally don’t add Rotten Tomatoes in my ratings, but I was curious.
IMDB.com has a high rating at 5.2, read the user reviews.
Rotten Tomatoes rates this at 32%, ROTTEN!
I give The Video Dead a 3.0, yikes!
Add a copy of Terror Vision and the Video Dead to your collection with Scream Factory’s Collector’s Edition 2-pack on Blu Ray.
