The Video Dead (1987)
PLOT - An unlabelled crate from an unknown source is delivered to a house in
the woods. The homeowner unwisely accepts the delivery, only to discover
it contains a TV set that starts spewing giggling zombies all over the
place. When a new family moves into the now-abandoned house, the son
discovers the haunted televsion and is soon told what he needs to do to
send the zombies back where they belong. Knowing and doing, however, are
two very different things, and the zombies are not likely to go
quietly.
LOWDOWN - I'll be the first to admit, I sadly ever saw The Video Dead before, nor remember it's iconic VHS artwork growing up as a kid. I did however decide to buy it along with Terrorvision as an amazing double feature released by Scream Factory (thanks guys for always never ceasing to amaze me). I've been slowly collecting all of Scream Factory's releases, even if I all ready own ten or so copies of the same movie. It's just something about owning all these lost gems that have long since gone out of print, now on beauitfuil HD, and for the most part in SE blu-ray, packed with extras, amazing menus, and kick ass new artwork only fans could truly enjoy.
= Bye Stacy's bank account...
Any who, there the double feature blu-ray sat in my collect sadly collecting dust before finally just last weekend while in Boston with Ms. Kristy Jett to go see Jason Takes Manhattan, I had the pleasure to meet a guy by the name of Chris MacGibbon. Chris is the man responsible for getting Scream Factory to release The Video Dead, and to show that even after all this time it still has a very strong cult following. I sat down and talked with Chris for a bit, and later on he was awesome enough to give me some pretty great advice in dealing with getting the two Waxwork movies released on blu-ray. Here he explained his process with getting The Video Dead released and that's when I sadly had to admit I hadn't seen the movie yet. Yesterday out of curiosity. Safe to say I was very pleased!
The Video Dead is what low budget horror dreams are made of. Taking a very interesting approach towards zombies, which weren't exactly that huge after, the golden age of the mid 80's where we had such classics as Return Of The Living Dead, Day Of The Dead, and even Night Of The Creeps. The end of the 80's also meant it was the end of the slasher/horror craze that had taken the decade by storm. Still, in 1987-1989 there were some really awesome hidden gems (Intruder, A Nightmare On Elm Street 3, 4, Bad Dreams, Pumpkin Head, Hellraiser II: Hellbound, and Waxwork, and many many more.) In 1987 we were given the treat to The Video Dead which was extremely underrated, and stayed low on the radar while other horror movies that were much larger and flashy got the chance to shine in the sun.
I feel sadly nowadays, zombies are getting a wee bit out of hand. Between The Walking Dead, and the bath salts, I feel zombies are on overload. Why can't we just go back to the good old days when zombies were still done well and not to the annoying point. via 2004, Dawn Of The Dead remake.
Trust me, I could bitch about my love hate feelings towards zombies all day.
With The Video Dead, this was a golden era where zombies were still done nicely and not to death (no pun intended). The 80's were back when zombies were done with practical makeup, starred in awesome movies, and for the most part had some of the best gore to splatter the silver screen.
The Video Dead has a clever storyline, I loved the opening with the mysterious TV set being delivered out of no where, which results in whatever program is playing, comes to life and comes out of the television set and into the real world. With some very memorable lines, and moments The Video Dead is a perfect movie to watch with a group of people after having a couple of beers.
Love the toothbrush scene!
The effects are very impressive, loved all the zombies makeups, and the chainsaw death. One of my favorite moments is when the "Lady" comes to visit our lead character in his bedroom. Very creepy and loved the score. The main things that stood out to me was in the final act of the movie was the fact a main character was brutally murdered, and the idea of the mirrors and showing no fear. In fact I loved the whole showing no fear scene and inviting the zombies in for dinner. Such an awesome scene, and with pretty awesome ending.
I'm in the process of listening to the commentary which features Chris and I honestly have to hand it to Chris for getting such an awesome underrated classic released. The image was beautiful, and it's a new favorite of mine when it comes to low budget fun zombie movies. The Video Dead is a great movie for horror and zombie fans to enjoy. Now onto Terrorvision...
3 Stars!
The Video Dead is what low budget horror dreams are made of. Taking a very interesting approach towards zombies, which weren't exactly that huge after, the golden age of the mid 80's where we had such classics as Return Of The Living Dead, Day Of The Dead, and even Night Of The Creeps. The end of the 80's also meant it was the end of the slasher/horror craze that had taken the decade by storm. Still, in 1987-1989 there were some really awesome hidden gems (Intruder, A Nightmare On Elm Street 3, 4, Bad Dreams, Pumpkin Head, Hellraiser II: Hellbound, and Waxwork, and many many more.) In 1987 we were given the treat to The Video Dead which was extremely underrated, and stayed low on the radar while other horror movies that were much larger and flashy got the chance to shine in the sun.
I feel sadly nowadays, zombies are getting a wee bit out of hand. Between The Walking Dead, and the bath salts, I feel zombies are on overload. Why can't we just go back to the good old days when zombies were still done well and not to the annoying point. via 2004, Dawn Of The Dead remake.
Trust me, I could bitch about my love hate feelings towards zombies all day.
With The Video Dead, this was a golden era where zombies were still done nicely and not to death (no pun intended). The 80's were back when zombies were done with practical makeup, starred in awesome movies, and for the most part had some of the best gore to splatter the silver screen.
The Video Dead has a clever storyline, I loved the opening with the mysterious TV set being delivered out of no where, which results in whatever program is playing, comes to life and comes out of the television set and into the real world. With some very memorable lines, and moments The Video Dead is a perfect movie to watch with a group of people after having a couple of beers.
Love the toothbrush scene!
The effects are very impressive, loved all the zombies makeups, and the chainsaw death. One of my favorite moments is when the "Lady" comes to visit our lead character in his bedroom. Very creepy and loved the score. The main things that stood out to me was in the final act of the movie was the fact a main character was brutally murdered, and the idea of the mirrors and showing no fear. In fact I loved the whole showing no fear scene and inviting the zombies in for dinner. Such an awesome scene, and with pretty awesome ending.
I'm in the process of listening to the commentary which features Chris and I honestly have to hand it to Chris for getting such an awesome underrated classic released. The image was beautiful, and it's a new favorite of mine when it comes to low budget fun zombie movies. The Video Dead is a great movie for horror and zombie fans to enjoy. Now onto Terrorvision...
3 Stars!
No comments:
Post a Comment