Rating: NR
Genres:
Action
Horror
Release Date: 08/09/2005
Dubbed: English
Sound: DD5.1/DDS2.0
Run Time: 78 min
Flags: Graphic Violence, Profanity
Distributor/Studio: Anchor Bay
The feature debut of ultra-low-budget horror auteur
J.R. Bookwalter, this fast-paced zombie mini-epic is very likely the most expensive movie ever shot on Super-8 film. Playing with the long-established mythos of
George A. Romero's
Living Dead trilogy,
The Dead Next Door was produced with the help of many of the
Evil Dead crew: financial backer
Sam Raimi is credited as "Master Cylinder" and one of the characters is named after him;
Evil Dead co-writer
Scott Spiegel plays a role; and some character voices are dubbed by
Bruce Campbell. The story centers on the members of the "Zombie Squad" -- an assault team trained in the hunting and extermination of the living dead -- and their mission to track down the scientists who developed a zombie-making virus and find the rumored antidote. Of the many lethal obstacles in their path, the deadliest comes in the form of a religious cult whose leader sees the zombie epidemic as a precursor of Armageddon -- and is hell-bent on expediting it. Very stylish for what is essentially an epic-scale home movie (and gushing with plentiful home-style gore effects), this remains Bookwalter's best effort and contains numerous witty homages to the Romero films which inspired it.
~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
Gory and fast-paced, the popularity of
The Dead Next Door among young viewers probably springs from its resemblance to a live-action video game rather than any intrinsically impressive qualities, other than the fact that it ever got finished in the first place. Shot over four years at a cost of over $120,000 (
Sam Raimi originally put up $8,000), it was later redubbed by
Evil Dead star
Bruce Campbell. Despite its inflated reputation, the film is likely to strike all but the most rabid devotees of low-budget splatter as the
reductio ad absurdum of what was already a thin plot line during the subgenre's major period of popularity in the 1970s: Zombies eat people, and the uneaten people shoot them. This
Nintendo style of filmmaking has caused more than one wag to label it "chop 'em and pop 'em," but if mindless bloodletting is what the viewer seeks, this is admittedly one of the more skillful attempts. The collector's edition contains extra scenes and a half-hour documentary about the film's troubled production. Creator
J.R. Bookwalter went on to make many genre films, including
The Sandman and
Polymorph.
~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
