User Reviews

RISING DEAD is a garden variety example of the usual mundane indie zombie movie. A bunch of undesirables hide out in an old barn while a few badly-acting zombies shuffle around outside. It's shot in a weird limited frame style which makes it look extremely cheap and all but unwatchable, and the acting is out of this world.

No adult with a 7th grade education could write such poor dialogue. If the screenplay had been a middle school writing assignment it wouldn't pass muster. The echo effect during the narration was very annoying. Whoever edited this craptastic piece of cinema and thought that was a good idea should be beaten in the public square. I can't see how the producers could have recouped the $1500.00 it cost to make this abomination. Blake Cousins' "acting" lacked any range of emotion. There was no change in his mood whether he was taking a smoke break, chopping up zombies, having his hand radically amputated, or stopping for a tasty snack. And didn't that fallout shelter seem to be the stock room of an auto parts store? They wasted an afternoon making this bomb and I wasted an hour and a half watching it. Thank god for BitTorrent. It wouldn't be worth the dollar at Blockbuster. For a small fee I'd be happy to proofread their next disaster and remove redundancies and replace ignorant phrases with some subtle wit.

At the beginning of the film, we are informed that a war broke out and the use of biological weapons caused an epidemic which made the dead to rise. A special forces agent (one of the Cousins Brothers)is escorting America's important figures to a kind of a fallout shelter by plane. Unfortunately, the plane crashes down just a few miles before it reaches its destination. There are several survivors: Our hero, the first lady, her crippled son and her little daughter and two other women...Sounds fun, ha? Well, it is neither fun nor entertaining and it is certainly not scary. Here are some reasons why you should avoid this title: - The script is a disaster. Here are a couple of examples: Throughout the film, we witness that the crippled son can outrun both zombies and other people. There are some scenes where he is actually running! Near the end, our hero is bitten from his left hand and amputates it. A few scenes later, when he is suiting up to fix the radioactive leakage, he has his both hands back again.... - The echo in the narration was really irritating and the lines were so bad. - The dialogs were very stupid and were probably written by a 3-year-old. - The acting was horrible (The first five people you see and round up from any location could have done much better) - The ending was horrible... There is definitely nothing good about the film and I don't have enough space to write about the rest. I tried to summarize it, the best I can.

Zombie movies are great fun. One would guess when I bought this movie in a very good condition for less than $2 it is going to be low budget. Yes the acting & the script are quite poor, but you cannot take this movie seriously & compare it to the well made Zombie movies out there.

I saw the funny side of the things, Blake used two different guns during the first part of the movie. One of the two girls while they were escaping had glasses on then they realized later, she started the movie without them, so she took them off afterwards. Then Blake had two similar black jackets. One torn from the upper right shoulder, & one was ok, used intermittently during the latter part of the movie, in the shelter. My favorite part is the moving hand that can grab & see where it's going. The grainy look of the movie was intended because there were scenes which were good. The killing and gore is plentiful. Especially when Blake took two heads off at the same time.

Overall, there is a funny side for this movie. I don't know if they were intended or not but I had a good laugh picking out the mistakes.

Frankly I was worried for the actors in catching something in the dirty place they were filming & perhaps getting scratched from the rusty metal around them, which will make them needing tetanus shots.

"The Rising Dead" is a much more exciting and enjoyable film than it should've been.

**SPOILERS**

Following a vicious plague on Earth, John Blake, (Black Cousins) Gaberial, (Gabe Hernandez) Catherine, (Catherine Louise) and Treasure, (Treasure O'Keefe) crash-land in a small desolate valley and seek out shelter. Knowing that the dead are coming up from their graves, they try to increase their chances for survival by staying out of sight of the zombies. Despite their best efforts, the massive numbers of the undead are too much and slowly whittle down their numbers, leaving only him as the last survivor of the attacks and he eventually runs into Ariel, (RoseAnne Okumura) who has also survived several encounters with the undead as well. Forced with the real threat of being the last two alive, they try to figure a way of getting away from the creatures and save themselves from being turned into the undead.

The Good News: This was a lot better than expected for a low-budget zombie effort. One of the best features about it is the rather impressive action scenes. Admittedly, most of the movie is reserved for action scenes, where they encounter the zombies, but it's still rather fun to watch it all play-out, and we get some nice sequences out of it. One of the best is the initial confrontation within the safe-house, as the zombies come out of practically everywhere and attack, with some fun defensive tactics used to protect themselves and a couple of innovative brawling moments with the creatures to keep it moving. Other sequences, as the attack in the hut, with the encounter with the disembodied hand, or the one in the storage shack that results in several members of the crew meeting a demise, are rather well-done and quite exciting. The best part of the action, though, is the big chase scene through the destroyed bunker. This is an extended series of mini-chases and encounters, while the actual location of the place is what manages to make it work all on it's own. Put out as a series of labyrinths and corridors, twisting back-and-forth on each other in a dizzying layout, it makes for a never-ending series of tunnels that work into creating an effective setting for a zombie encounter. Even better, then, that it manages to contain a ton of action anyway, with it being a never-ending deal that entertains highly. This is a great series of scenes that score here nicely. This one also has some good stuff to come from the look of the zombies. With there being a sort of cross between the recently-reanimated variety and the dead-for-centuries style, it's quite nice and offers up something innovative for fans of the style, making them look rather gruesome and incredibly rotting. Their look is rather great, making them into something to be feared nicely. The last plus here is the gore, which is quite messy and manages to be quite impressive. There's ton of vicious-looking bites, a wicked decapitation, some limbs ripped off, a sword impaled in the mouth, some nice-looking skin ripped off the bones and tons of bullet-wounds, among others, which is great and makes for some entertaining kills. These here are what make the film enjoyable.

The Bad News: There wasn't too much really wrong with this one. The biggest issue is the fact that the film appears to have almost no plot at all. It seems to pretty much follow a never-ending pattern of surviving an attack then go to another one despite it not making any sense why they come together. That's what makes the film feel awfully disjointed, in that it really doesn't have any sort of logical flow to it, and it seems to go along into pretty much everything except what a film would logically be about, as it seems to just be one random scene after another that is only marginally connected together by the narration, and it suffers for this. The only other factor for this one is the rather obvious low-budget on display. It doesn't really make any attempts to hide it, but the film does come across as being not-so-hidden about it. From the gore effects to the overall look from it's setting and action, there's not much about it that can be hidden by that. It's also not something too many are going to be concerned about, but it can be for some and should be noted. These are what's wrong with the film.

The Final Verdict: A really fun, if somewhat mildly flawed low-budget zombie effort that does make it worthwhile at times. Really only recommended for fans of the low-budget apocalyptic zombie fare, though other zombie fans should enjoy it, while those who are turned off by the budget issue should look elsewhere.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language

Yes, you may think by reading the previous comments, this is a terribly made 'Zombieflick', but it's actually rather delightful. The characters (I Think),did their parts quite well, and brought the whole point of the plot home quite well.It may not be a 'Rob Zombie' or 'George A. Romero' classic but it held it's own as far as the Horror genre goes. Part of the set, an old fall-out shelter, was well done, which I imagined as quite a bit of work, if it was built for this movie, and if not, a great addition in discovery for the movie. Well worth adding to your collection if you are a Zombie fanatic. After all,we are all Zombie's at one time or another. We just don't eat brains. I give this a 6 of 10.