Category Archives: Zombies

Shatter Dead (1994)
Review by: Corin Wentworth

WHAT IT’S ABOUT: In an unknown area of America, a woman named Susan attempts to return to her boyfriend’s apartment in the midst of a zombie uprising. On her way, she is harassed by a preacher and a dead woman named Mary, intent on convincing her that being undead is preferable to life.

REVIEW: The slick, colorful jacket of this DVD — covered in semi-nude, bloodstained women and boldface promises of sexy scares — led me to believe that this was going to be a zombie horror movie much like the rest of the zombie fare in the horror section of my video store. So my initial reaction upon discovering that it was shot on what appears to be home video, starring student actors, featuring cheap special effects, and patched together on clearly a zero-budget was one of sour disappointment. While the charm of these type of films can work wonderfully in some cases, such as the original Evil Dead, which had the benefit of a delightfully talented cast and crew, in other cases it falls flat on its face and fails to deliver much (if any) of what it promises on the back of the DVD. Such is the case with Shatter Dead.

Forget for the moment that the entire film looks like something you shot at home on your family camcorder — a difficult task, I know, but bear with me — the story itself alternates between mind-numbingly boring and just plain confusing. The opening shot of the film features a nude woman being plowed from behind by another nude woman wearing a silver wig. What? Okay, I guess this will make sense eventually… But no. Just when you’re starting to ask yourself how they’re even accomplishing this and thinking that there must be some sort of prosthetic device involved, the silver-wigged woman sprouts wings and we cut to a screen that says “SEVENTEEN MONTHS LATER.” Just what the bloody hell was all that about? After the movie was over, I was still confused, as no explanation was ever given for this weird scene. According to Wikipedia: “the back of the DVD cover says the Angel of Death impregnates a mortal woman, causing the dead to come alive.” Okay. I guess it was just one of those important plot points too important to include in the film.

Fangirls Gone Wild!

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