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The Video Dead
A Review by Jon Walmsley - trioxin.wordpress.com
The Video Dead is a relatively obscure little film nowadays, and one that I still don't think has had a full DVD release. This is a pity as it's considerably better than many zombie films that followed it. Well, that is assuming that decent scripting, acting, editing and direction are not required as a measure of quality. What is of class here though is the story, which is thoroughly enjoyable and pretty original by zombie standards, although still utter nonsense.
It centres around a television which is apparently possessed by some sort of unexplained psychic phenomenon, causing it to constantly show the film 'Zombie Blood Nightmare' on an infinite loop. Should this TV be switched on (sometimes all of it's own accord) the zombies from this film escape into the real world to get involved in all sort of comedy escapades. Completely unsurprisingly this television turns up in an old dudes house who accidentally releases the zombies and gets the movie underway.
There follows scenes of zombies trying on women's hairpieces, zombies hiding in washing machines, zombies sitting around for dinner together and zombies giggling to themselves about how funny all their japes are. Oh yes, not forgetting zombies murdering every human they come across in long drawn out death scenes. It is down to a man from Texas with a Chainsaw and a local kid with a bow and arrow (yeah, nice weapon choice dude) to save the day and track down these Zombies. These 2 guys head off into the nearby woods armed with their weapons as well as some mirrors (zombies hate their reflections apparently, as memorably discovered by Vincent Price in 'The Last Man on Earth') to set a trap for the undead to wander into. However this is possibly the least intelligent trap in movie history, as it consists of hanging the kid from a tree as bait while the Texan goes off for a nap. Obviously this all ends badly for our stupid heroes, and the zombies head off to the local kids house to visit his (masonry-block jawed) sister, who promptly invites them in for a dinner party. As you do.
The Zombies themselves are pretty impressive looking, and some of the gore scenes are nicely done (zombie innards contain live rats, apparently). If you can overlook the terrible acting and dodgy filming it's actually an enjoyable and unusual addition to the zombie film catalog. However, it does seem to be misleading in it's title - there was no 'Video' anywhere to be seen in this film. Oh well, 'The Black and White Television Dead' doesn't really have the same ring to it.