User Reviews

I am a zombie fan. I have seen dozens of zombie movies, maybe more. This one is nicely self- consistent. Decent story. Not-bad acting. FX aren't bad.

Only two significant comments. It's too dark. the movie takes place in a prison. I used to be a police officer. Every prison I ever saw was brightly lit. the guards want to be able to see what the prisoners are doing. the darkness of this movie destroyed its verisimilitude and made it much less pleasurable to watch.

The other serious incongruity is the woman whose large, bare breasts pop on and off the screen. Who is she and why is she hanging around the prison with no shirt on? I like bare breasts as much as the next guy, assuming the next guy isn't Ted Haggard, but they seem out of place in a prison movie, a zombie movie or in this case, a prison-zombie movie.

A man infected with a strange virus while wiping out a houseful of zombies is arrested and placed in a maximum-security prison. Unfortunately, the virus spreads before a CDC doctor can isolate him and the entire prison soon becomes a battleground between the living and dead in this lively horror film. Director Peter Mervis makes good use of the prison setting and the tight script by Mike Watt – making this one of the better efforts by prolific, but wildly inconsistent, team at The Asylum. The special effects are decent, and the pace is brisk, however, the editing does get annoying in places. Although I found this film superior to many of the straight-to-video films I have seen recently, it still suffers from undeveloped and unsympathetic characters. Is it the actors or script? Hard to say. All I know is that it had emotional impact when Duane Jones died at the end of "Night of the Living Dead." You don't feel anything when the SWAT guys waste the chick at the end of this film.

This movie had a great concept. Unfortunately, the concept was completely slaughtered by the Asylum. Those of you familiar with my reviews know that I consider the production company known as the Asylum to be one of the worst things to happen to the horror film industry in ten years. This one had a good concept to start with, but they went nowhere with it.

The basic idea is a bunch of zombies trapped in a high security prison. I'm a sucker for a zombie movie. I just like them, I can't help myself. Even a bad zombie movie can be good sometimes, but this one was really difficult to watch. For one thing, it's got absolutely the worst, god-awful acting I've ever seen, especially by the lead actress. Her acting is reminiscent of cheap adult films.

In this movie, this Traci Lords wanna-be plays a CDC employee who's investigating some kind of viral zombie plague like the virus in 28 DAYS LATER. It's a solid starting point, and it coulda been a decent flick, but the acting is terrible and the sound is all screwed up. The dialog is only in synch about 60% of the time. There's also some weird kind of strobing effect in a lot of the shots, like what happens when you digitize on an Avid at a really low resolution.

DEAD MEN WALKING is, by far, the best movie to come out of the Asylum, but that's not saying a whole lot. Not bad for a night's rental if you're a rabid zombie fan like me, and as long as you don't go in expecting too much.

Where to begin? From seeing production crew in several shots, to the high school nerd looking prison staff...no part of this movie was believable. Security guard costumes for prison staff, "guards" with live ammo on the tiers, the doctor's reaction to a sudden death, I could go on... My favorite was the sniper's rifle at the end. A totally plastic 6 dollar (seriously, I bought my son one) Sig 556 knock off. Oh, yeah. The helicopter at the end. I would bet money it just happen to be flying over while a camera was out. The acting was horrible...all the acting. There were at least 3 "important" scenes that were voiced over post production. It looked like an old Chinese kung-fu flick. The writing isn't even worth mentioning. The only outstanding frame was breast on the convicts "visitor". Coudos to her surgeon! I did like that the kids were not spared getting bit, eaten and shot. I've been in prison lots, and I would rather participate in a good 'ol fashion riot than sit through this again. Beware. Even if you want a B-zombie movie. This was too bad.

"Dead Men Walking" is a pretty normal entry in the zombie genre.

**SPOILERS**

After being caught trying to wipe out a zombie invasion, a new prisoner is transferred to Harwood Maximum Security Prison, and the strange cause of his arrest prompts Samantha Beckett, (Bay Bruner) to look into him. The staff soon become concerned that he's vomiting blood on the inmates, and Samantha eventually reveals that he was infected with a strange virus that turns the infected into a bloodthirsty zombie. As it spreads through the prison, infecting more inmates and staff members, they are forced to defend themselves from the blood-thirsty zombies that have taken over the prison.

The Good News: This one actually turned out to be a pretty decent zombie film. The most impressive thing in the movie is the huge amount of blood on display. The gore sequences were pretty outstanding and there was tons of blood flying everywhere, some really chunky bites, blood splatter all over the prison walls, guts are yanked from afar, necks gashed wide open, and a whole slew of abdominal eviscerations that were of great quality and very impressive. The gore flowed pretty steadily throughout the film and was a very gory delight. The setting is a nice, new one for zombie films, and actually gets some mileage out of the fact that it's an enclosed surrounding with no way to get out. It's a great touch that helps out tremendously. Once the film gets going, it's pretty much non-stop, making for some great action scenes towards the end, and the last half-hour in particular is just full-throttle action. The opening also helps in the action factor, starting it off on the right notion. It wasn't all that bad.

The Bad News: There is a couple complaints for the film. The biggest problem is the gunfire. I know this is a low budget film, but please put a flash on the gun when it fires. It was slightly ridiculous to see guards hold their guns at the zombies, with gunfire sounds in the scene, but with nothing coming out of the gun. Even the fact that they never even sound as loud as a real gun should be in the situation is a distraction. There's no loud booming sound, rather a weak-sounding cap that really gives the fake guns away. The zombie attack scenes are also staged much too chaotically and edited with such quick jump cuts and blurring effects that it feels more like a low-budget video game. It's very hyper stylized and serves as a distraction rather than a help. And as a personal gripe, fast-running zombies will never be scary.

The Final Verdict: It's decent enough in it's own way, but the few gripes against it will never be enough to offset what gory highlights can be gathered. If you're a zombie fan or love this type of film, give it a go. Otherwise, exercise extreme cation.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity and children in danger

I really wasn't expecting miracles with this film. It's a low budget zombie film. All I ask is that there's some good splatter and maybe a few original zombie kills. The film is about a virus that spreads in a maximum security prison that turns people into 28-Days-Later Style zombies. The acting in this is good enough. Usually in a piece like this you're expecting acting that turns your stomach inside out. And a few hams aside, it's not so bad.

The plot is pretty thin, but who needs any more. There are a few plot holes, such as why there's a family hanging out in a prison for no apparent reason. And why an inmate is making out with a girl in a random room, other than the filmmakers needed to throw in some tits and couldn't find another way. The direction was competent, which is all you can really ask for in a film like this. The editing had both of it's highs and lows. Well done in some flashback scenes, crappy MTV editing with some of the attacks.

The music was alright. Headbanging rock that can get kind of annoying at times. The costumes and set were maybe the strongest evidence of the low budget. The prisoners of the "Maximum Security Prison" all wore hospital scrubs for some reason, and the guards looked like they were better dressed to guard a mall or a hotel rather than a prison. They even had "Security Officer" patches on their arms for pity's sake. And the set of the "Maximum Security Prison" was obviously an old abandoned jail. They tried to explain it in an aside that the warden liked it that way, but it was obviously an afterthought to explain the poor set.

The ending was a little unsatisfying, in that no one actually got out alive. Not even the main blonde chick. But since there's a precedent in Romero's zombie films, I can't fault them too much. All in all, I would suggest this film if you're a zombie nut such as I am. Otherwise, there's many others I would suggest in the genre over this one.

Man this movie was the worst thing I've ever seen in my life! Granted, I didn't expect much from this movie when I rented it, but I expected more from this piece of crap! The plot made no sense and the directors have no shame whatsoever. What a family was doing just sitting around in a maximum security prison doing nothing made no sense whatsoever. However, when the guard turned, I figured the screen going black was sufficient and we could just assume what happened. They didn't need to show the kids getting killed. That was ridiculous. When the movie went back to that family, what was the mother still doing holding the kids' hands?!?! This is worst low budget movie I've ever seen in my life and if you watch this waste of film, you'll probably want to commit suicide because you'll never get that part of your life back....EVER

At its center, this movie has a pretty good story - a viral outbreak at a prison turns the inmates and guards into flesh-eating zombies. The problem is (besides the dreadful acting and jumbled script) the viewer is immediately thrust into the epidemic without any build up or any context to figure out what is happening. The believability of the circumstances is pretty shaky, too - (1) no matter what, a prisoner showing such dramatic signs of illness is not going to be escorted nonchalantly to his cell, especially if he continues vomiting blood over everyone; (2) the "prison" is a poor excuse for an abandoned building (windows are missing for crying out loud) and the gate of this "maximum-security" facility can be busted by a kid on his tricycle; (3) it would stand to reason that with the cells and the various security gates, a lock down would be very effective at keeping all the zombies from running rampant throughout the prison ... yet that is not the case. I didn't care for the overacting and the excessive scenes of inmates vomiting blood or zombies pulling intestines out of their victims - do it once and then try something else for god's sake. I will say this, I made it an hour into the movie before I finally had enough. Get a film editor on this movie, clean things up a bit, and it could be halfway decent. As it is, it's a mess and amazingly dull.

This is one of those Zombie movies that shouldn't actually work, but does. Most of the cast are wooden stereotypes, about whom you care nothing. It's a story we've seen many times and there is very little originality. SO why the high score.

Well, for once I actually cared about two of the characters. The lady from the CDC and the "cat burglar" stood head and shoulders above the rest of the cast. There was a chemistry between them and when things didn't work out, I felt hurt. It is highly unusual for me to ever get involved at this level in what otherwise is a gore-feast that makes Romeros' movies suitable for a vicars tea party!! I guess it could have been better, but it will stay with me for a long time.

Angelfish

Get ready and hold on. This horror entry starts a bit slow, but then the pace picks up and all hell breaks loose. A prisoner with a viral infection is transfered to a maximum security prison and soon prisoners and guards alike are infected and become hyper-violent zombies. A CDC rep(Bay Bruner)does not even get the chance to isolate a sample of the virus. The flesh eating zombies feed on each other. The survivors barely have a prayer to avoid being victim of the hellacious slaughter.

Special effects are pretty gory. Some scenes are way over the line from being mildly disturbing. Some camera angles seem voyeouristic. Buckets of blood. Gallons or gore. Blood oozing like a dirty petroleum leak. Vomit projectiles both thick and chunky. Human limbs are chewed off and miles of guts are strung out. DEAD MEN WALKING is damn sure not for the weak of heart. I actually liked this wild ride and don't know who to thank first...writer Mike Watt or director Peter Mervis. Some of the other cast members: Griff Furst, Brandon Stacy, Chriss Anglin and James Ferris. So profoundly perverse...may be better to watch on an empty stomach. Enjoy.