Movie review: Dead Country

A deadly alien virus has infected a small rural town, turning people into flesh-eating zombies. The alien responsible works diligently with a few locals to keep the virus from spreading even further.

Andrew Merkelbach (Orion), Christopher Shen (Shen Lee), William Butler (Narrator), Janet Keijser (Janis), Lloyd Kaufman (Lloyd), Jacqueline Lovell (Teri), William Malone (William), Ted Mikels (Minister for Defence).

Dead Country is a zombie flick that may just turn you into a zombie! There was no plot, though it may have been eaten by zombies. There were no character introductions or even names given for characters, and only a ridiculous attempt at creating a setting for the film. Using subtitles to make main plot points is a good indicator that a film has problems, and this one had more than we can list. Topless females, regardless how cute or beautiful, do not make up for poor quality from every other aspect of the film.

Acting was absent here. Merkelback was unconvincing in every way. Shen was mildly better but again, failed as an action hero. Slowing down fight scenes for overweight actors does not make them better. Missed cues, bad timing, poor delivery, lack of emotion, obvious lack of familiarity with the script, and these are only a few of the problems. The dog might have been the best actor in the film, though we do have to give kudos to the topless ladies in the film.

Camera work was horrendous. Do NOT point the camera at the sun, nor at a spider-web for more than 3 seconds no matter how cool it is. Switching filters on every scene makes a film hard to watch, stop it, and the incessant shaking as well. Sets were bland and boring. Makeup was almost interesting however, sausages are not entrails and CGI blood will never, ever look realistic. Dialogue was so bad to almost be offensive. Soundtrack was bad enough the Mute button was required to maintain sanity.

Dead Country is dead to us. If we never run into this film again, it will be to soon. If you are into horrible, no-budget lame excuses to get your friends in a film and women to go topless then you will love this one. For anyone else wanting actual entertainment find something, anything, else and forget this one exists.

With plenty of lame gratuitous nudity, foul language, blood, gore, and violence all done in the worst way possible, this should be fine for older teens and above.

Released: 2008
Reviewed: 1.4.15
Star rating: 1 out of 5
Genre: Horror, Zombies, Sci-Fi Horror, Alien Sci-Fi, B-Movie Horror

copyright ©2015 Dave Riedel

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