An Exercise in Poor Taste- Dead and Rotting

[Guest TSMAdmin]

Yesterday, I went to the Museum of Modern Art, and then ice skating, where I fell down at least 20 times (and, if anything, that’s an understatement!). The whole affair left me so sore that I couldn’t even muster up the strength to play Project Gotham on my friend’s XBOX, and ended up asleep at 8:30 (!). As the old adage goes, early to bed early to rise, and I found myself awake on a Saturday morning before noon. For once I had time on my hands, and fittingly, instead of doing something constructive like laundry, writing my attractive South African friend, or kicking ass in the One and Only Anglesault Thread, I had breakfast, went to my DVD player, and proceeded to waste the rest of the morning and afternoon watching (and the rest of the evening trying to review)…

 

Dead & Rotting: Limited Special Edition (2002)

Tempe Entertainment/Full Moon Pictures

 

Film (complete with minor plot spoilers!):

This DVD marks the end of a great era, as this is the final film collaboration between Charles Band’s infamous Full Moon Pictures and J.R. Bookwalter’s Tempe Entertainment. The low-budget horror alliance began around 1999, with Bookwalter and Tempe taking over post production, direction, and distribution on several Full Moon films. Three years may not seem like a long time, but in that short period of time the collaboration released over ten films, most notably the Witchouse trilogy. Although it would be a stretch to call any of the films particularly innovative or instant classics, they were entertaining. Dead & Rotting is no different.

 

Our story begins with Eric, JB, and Hollis, three friends/roommates/co-workers approaching their town’s local “witch house” to settle a bet. They arrive at the house, only to leave in disappointment when they find nothing (what, were they expecting Lilith? Wrong movie guys!). In typical horror fashion, when the three are leaving they run into Pox, resident creepy guy and son of a witch. The next day, after the three hassle Pox, Abigail does what witches do; brew up a strange powder so that the three wake up to visions of death and a case of chicken pox that can only be described as... EEEVIL! (Indeeeed!) Seeking revenge, the three decide to pay two stoners to throw rocks through her window, but instead they do what stoners do, cook people alive for no apparent reason (in this case, Pox, the witch’s son, who is really a cat, explaining why he orders a bowl of milk at the bar earlier in the film). Upon finding her soup du dead cat, Abigail becomes enraged and turns into Abi (Debbie Rochon!), who seduces the three men, for the sole purpose of becoming impregnated (!) to “give birth” to embryonic sacs that she plants in pumpkins. These pumpkins grow up to become ghouls with scythes, who are sent to bring in the three so that Abi can give them a strange brew that enables them to stay conscious while they are dead... and rotting...

 

Although there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the story, I probably made Dead & Rotting sound twice as cool as it actually is. Probably the most interesting part of the story is that the three friends, who are portrayed as the protagonists, were in fact causing trouble with Abigail from the beginning, making it a little hard to hate Abigail, since she’s acting in self defense. The performance of Barbara Katz-Norrod as Abigail does nothing to rectify the situation, as even at her “most evil” she gives the character a sense of true maternal warmth. It’s easier to buy Abi, Abigail’s “younger form”, as evil because of her seductive presence (which is somewhat unfair, because Rochon’s purely sexual charisma overshadows Katz-Norrod’s better performance) and the fact that she actually does the dirty work on-screen, but since Abi seems to be a separate being from Abigail, it’s still a strange dilemma as to who to cheer for.

 

The rest of the film follows the “nothing fundamentally wrong, but nothing too interesting” model of the script. The ghouls are well-designed (and, if you pay attention to the credits and commentary, played by almost every cast member at some point or another), but are never given a chance to be really scary or menacing. There aren’t any quick shocks caused by any of the ghouls jumping out from nowhere for an unexpected kill or even the fake quick shocks from a spring-loaded animal/prop. Referring to Eric, JB, and Hollis as “the three” in the plot description/minor spoilers is easy because the characters are interchangeable, with the exception of Hollis as the typical “nice guy” who just wants to let bygones be bygones, but not enough to take any action to stop his two friends from stirring up trouble (then horror script logic screams, “if he did there’d be no movie!”). Dead & Rotting isn’t a terrible film, but it’s not terribly special either. I’d really only recommend the film as a purchase to Full Moon and Tempe fans and as a rental for anyone else.

 

Redeeming Aspects:

Much as the movie was pretty standard, the opening sequence was one of the coolest I’ve ever seen, and, I hate to say it, was better than the movie itself (a curious phenomenon I haven’t seen since the South African crocodile movie Blood Surf). Also, let’s not forget the b-movie fan-boy awe that is DEBBIE ROCHON’S BREASTS~! In more traditional “good stuff”, there is the awesome make-up job on the ghouls, even though they don’t appear much, and the fact that a stoner saves the day not once, but twice, should be enough to make somebody happy.

 

Presentation:

The back claims that this is a widescreen, 16:9-enhanced transfer. In truth, the film is presented in the classic shot-on-video 4:3 full-frame (this same mistake was also made with Tempe’s recent Hell Asylum disc, so I’m not sure if Tempe is lying or if the printers are just misinformed). A Dolby Digital 5.1 surround mix is also claimed, and I honestly have no way of checking this. There are many parts of the film where it looks really gritty and grainy, not sure if this was intentional or not, but it’s very bothersome on a laptop (not so much on a TV).

 

Special Features:

Besides a pretty standard commentary track featuring director David P. Barton, star Tom Hoover, and “ghoul” David Greathouse (who I swear gets almost no talking time), there is a music-only audio option, which, as usual, is a better idea in theory than in practice (perhaps if there was music and sound effects it’d work better, but I have yet to see that on a major-label release, much less an independent one). There are behind the scenes outtakes and makeup-FX footage, along with still galleries of each (the production still gallery showing most notably the genesis of the box art). There is also an interview with Barton from 1999 where he gives a career retrospective and admits that he waited a long time for an opportunity with Full Moon, because even though it’s not a great company, it can be fun to work on a Full Moon project. Taking further personal risks, Barton has included Super 8 footage of his earliest projects within the interview, as well as half an hour of short films made during his teen years and five minutes of teenage FX work. Although it’s easy to make fun of the poor quality, I have always admired directors who put these features on their DVDs because it shows their dedication to the art and their inspirations from the beginning. That being said, it’s not really worth viewing more than once. Besides trailers for current and upcoming Tempe DVDs, there is also a bonus film from Low Budget Pictures, Filthy McNasty, which can best be described as disturbing, z-grade (it makes the b-grade Tempe production look like a technical masterpiece), and at times hilarious. The obscure cultural references and genre in-jokes are certainly inspired by the likes of Kevin Smith (one of the characters, Phil the Demon, even says “Snoogins!”). That also comes with its own commentary, and a “10 Years of Low Budget Pictures” trailer.

 

Overall:

While certainly not Full Moon’s worst picture in recent years, Dead & Rotting is really only worth a few views, as with any movie that is technically sound but attempts and brings nothing new. It won’t bore you to death, and it has its historical merit as the last Tempe/Full Moon collaboration, but that’s really it.

 

I should give some props where they’re due: I won this DVD in a contest sponsored by Tempe Entertainment, and since I would’ve bought it anyway, they saved me $15, for which, as an unemployed student, I am very thankful. Actually, if you think about it, for $15 this is a lot of bang for your buck (note to self: next time you get a DVD for free, shill so you get more free stuff). If nothing else, it’ll be better than Judgment Day 2K2 for less than half the price...

 

Being that I’m a narcissistic person (at least when it concerns my writing), be sure to write me and tell me how you much you loved my column (or how much you hated it, my inbox is lonely). Being that I’m also an Amazon.com wish list-whore at heart (due to my limited finances), if you really loved my column, you can always buy me something. Call it a really late birthday present... if you do buy me something, not only will I review it ASAP if it’s a movie, but I’ll also fulfill any sadistic movie-watching request, and post a review on this very site! Try and make sure it’s a movie I can actually find though...

 

Edward Robins

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“To me, bad taste is what entertainment is all about… [just] remember there is such a thing as good bad taste and bad bad taste.” – John Waters