Good day fellow Escapians
I would like to review a relatively new film you've probably never heard of.
Platoon of the Dead (2009) (V) IMDbPro
Director: John Bowker
Writer: John Bowker
Release Date: 2009 (USA) more
Genre: Horror
Main Cast
Ariauna Albright ... Heather
Amanda Bounds ... Jill
Tyler David ... Private Dillon
Chris Keown ... Lt. Roberts
Michelle Mahoney ... Stacy
Tom Stedham ... Sargent Butler
This is my first review, and I didn't want to be too negative, but here we go. From the outset it is quite clear the film has been made on a shoestring budget, and as a result, the film suffers and unfortunately there are very few redeeming features, I wasn't expecting another Blair Witch Project, but the horror genre can pleasantly surprise you every now and then. Regardless I struggled through the film, the first thing I noticed was that the film had a run time of 1h 22mins, very short you may think, but I genuinely think it bumbled along for long enough and could have easily been cut down to an hour.
The mangled wreckage I surmise was the plot revolved around yet another zombie epidemic, the result of five teens (four of which we never meet) playing with a Ouija Board. Yeah, I thought, pretty original, Not bad. It is yet another a survival horror, six mismatched people forced to work together - pretty generic there and this is as deep as the plot goes.
The acting was shoddy at best. No seriously, if you think you've seen bad acting, some of the acting in this film will blow your mind. The characters seemed very cliched and each could be adequately summed up with a few words (other than dull). We have:
'the likeable one' - Private Dillon
'the badass' - Sargent Butler
Then there is the most laughably cast actor I've ever seen, Lt. Roberts played by Chris Keown, a weedy, long haired actor, standing at no more than 5'6 was supposed to be a Marine Lt, but comes across as all touchy feely and as a result completely unconvincing. I couldn't help but urge him to either die or grow a pair of balls.
A simple fix for some of the unbelievable acting would have been to swap Sargent Butler to the Lt role, he seemed much more adept at acting out a soldier. The other 3 main characters, Jill, Heather and Stacy were never really explained, especially Jill, a mute who owns the house they haul up in... and summoned the zombies. Thats all we know about her. Hell she doesn't even deserve a surname, none of them do, perhaps that was a little stretch too far for the script writer.
The special effects, I imagine would have impressed a 10 year old, back in the 1970s - It was as cringingly bad as the acting. I'm not sure what they were thinking but they opted for Si-Fi-esk weapons which emit a ridiculous 'pew' 'pew' sound effect, and fired what I assume were lasers. The justification for not using bullets was mentioned in passing and was due to zombies growing an immunity; an obvious cop-out.
A recently uploaded video by Johnman, (one of the members on this board) made a much better attempt than these guys, proving you don't need a big budget, rather a little editing skill and some patience. 'Pipedreams Entertainment' should be ashamed for releasing a truly terrible film.
The one and only positive point I can come up with, and I've been wracking my brain for a while now, is that were a few moments of deliciously wacky and dark humour dotted throughout the film, a pleasant break from the dreadful acting and dire script. And so I'm torn between recommending it as some thing so delightfully tacky that it may in some bizarre parallel universe be considered almost good, and warning everyone to steer well clear.
[small]Search bar approved[/small]
I would like to review a relatively new film you've probably never heard of.
Platoon of the Dead (2009) (V) IMDbPro
Director: John Bowker
Writer: John Bowker
Release Date: 2009 (USA) more
Genre: Horror
Main Cast
Ariauna Albright ... Heather
Amanda Bounds ... Jill
Tyler David ... Private Dillon
Chris Keown ... Lt. Roberts
Michelle Mahoney ... Stacy
Tom Stedham ... Sargent Butler
This is my first review, and I didn't want to be too negative, but here we go. From the outset it is quite clear the film has been made on a shoestring budget, and as a result, the film suffers and unfortunately there are very few redeeming features, I wasn't expecting another Blair Witch Project, but the horror genre can pleasantly surprise you every now and then. Regardless I struggled through the film, the first thing I noticed was that the film had a run time of 1h 22mins, very short you may think, but I genuinely think it bumbled along for long enough and could have easily been cut down to an hour.
The mangled wreckage I surmise was the plot revolved around yet another zombie epidemic, the result of five teens (four of which we never meet) playing with a Ouija Board. Yeah, I thought, pretty original, Not bad. It is yet another a survival horror, six mismatched people forced to work together - pretty generic there and this is as deep as the plot goes.
The acting was shoddy at best. No seriously, if you think you've seen bad acting, some of the acting in this film will blow your mind. The characters seemed very cliched and each could be adequately summed up with a few words (other than dull). We have:
'the likeable one' - Private Dillon
'the badass' - Sargent Butler
Then there is the most laughably cast actor I've ever seen, Lt. Roberts played by Chris Keown, a weedy, long haired actor, standing at no more than 5'6 was supposed to be a Marine Lt, but comes across as all touchy feely and as a result completely unconvincing. I couldn't help but urge him to either die or grow a pair of balls.
A simple fix for some of the unbelievable acting would have been to swap Sargent Butler to the Lt role, he seemed much more adept at acting out a soldier. The other 3 main characters, Jill, Heather and Stacy were never really explained, especially Jill, a mute who owns the house they haul up in... and summoned the zombies. Thats all we know about her. Hell she doesn't even deserve a surname, none of them do, perhaps that was a little stretch too far for the script writer.
The special effects, I imagine would have impressed a 10 year old, back in the 1970s - It was as cringingly bad as the acting. I'm not sure what they were thinking but they opted for Si-Fi-esk weapons which emit a ridiculous 'pew' 'pew' sound effect, and fired what I assume were lasers. The justification for not using bullets was mentioned in passing and was due to zombies growing an immunity; an obvious cop-out.
A recently uploaded video by Johnman, (one of the members on this board) made a much better attempt than these guys, proving you don't need a big budget, rather a little editing skill and some patience. 'Pipedreams Entertainment' should be ashamed for releasing a truly terrible film.
The one and only positive point I can come up with, and I've been wracking my brain for a while now, is that were a few moments of deliciously wacky and dark humour dotted throughout the film, a pleasant break from the dreadful acting and dire script. And so I'm torn between recommending it as some thing so delightfully tacky that it may in some bizarre parallel universe be considered almost good, and warning everyone to steer well clear.
[small]Search bar approved[/small]