Edward Furlong, Cerina Vincent, Amber Benson, and Callard Harris go into an underground tunnel connecting Mexico and the United States to negotiate a drug deal coming in contact with "El Intermedio" ghosts "between worlds" who operate at the power of a vengeful farmer(Steve Railsback)whose son was a victim due to the abuse of drugs. Blood in a vial released by Railsback sends the ghouls hunting for fresh victims. We see that those killed remain as new Intermedio. Murky photography(ugly is more appropriate), inane dialogue(vulgar language isn't always colorful, this movie's a case in point), tacky special effects(particularly the gore murder sequences such as a chain gouging a victim's eye, another getting cut in half by a saw blade), and terrible acting(lots of screaming and bickering has the tendency to strain even the most tolerant of people's nerves)make INTERMEDIO a lost cause. It's not surprising this irredeemable slop was released through THE ASYLUM, and the names in the cast(Railsback, Furlong, Vincent)don't escape unscathed(you wade through the sewer long enough, it's impossible not to get crap on you). For most of the movie, Railsback is shown up close, letting out dabs of blood from a vial, only appearing a bit at the end to drug those who are able to escape the tunnel and inform us as to why he's trying to kill them. Vincent's impressive figure and beautiful breasts can only take a movie so far.

Four teens set out one day to explore one of those tunnels that run under the USA/Mexican border, not on any geological quest mind you, but it's rumored that there is a stash of some really primo grass there, the stuff they called in my misspent youth, Acapulco Gold. Nice and aged it should have a great street value.The four teens are Cerina Vincent, Callard Harris, Amber Benson, and Edward Furlong. At the time this film was made Edward Furlong was all of 28 and looked it, but I'm sure this was the best they were offering him.Now if nothing had ever happened why Benson was along is beyond me. She has a broken foot and is on crutches and she's really not much help in a crisis. And the crises start piling up.First our four explorers meet some real live drug dealers who are upset that someone is on their turf. The only other ones allowed are coyotes running illegals across the border. But then they meet up with crazy old Steve Railsback who has an army of ghosts he's collected in the tunnel. All part of some vengeance scheme involving his late son, Paul Cram who is also appearing as ectoplasm.This was supposed to be a camp version of a horror film, but I found very few laughs here.

I hate to dump on independent, low budget horror films, but, man, is this film bad. Edward Furlong, who has appeared in A-List films, must have needed a paycheck badly. He pretty much just mails it in here, just sort of screaming instead of trying to do any actual acting. The other actors give it a better attempt, but are just sort of lost. Technically, the film is a mess -- the effects are weak, and both lighting and sound are both really bad, so at times it's tough to see or hear what's going on.There's also no T&A to speak of, although the smoking hot Cerina Vincent tries to accommodate us by thoughtfully using half of her shirt to make a bandage about 1/2 hour into the movie. So technically she's wearing a very sexy outfit for the last hour of the film. But the lighting is sooooo bad that you can't really tell.Usually, I recommend all low budget independent horror films, but I'd take a pass on this one!

Before I say anything that gives you a bad impression about this movie, let me first say this, Intermedio (or Dead & Dying as it's known in the UK, which is how I shall refer to it from now on) is pretty good as straight to video horror movies go. It's probably about the third or fourth best one I've seen. That said, it was also disappointing, probably due to the promise of it's idea being squandered by mediocre execution. Dead & Dying could have been a cool terror ride, but as it is it just slides in with all the other STV 'teens in peril' horror movies.Although it is a bit generic, what stops it from sinking into the depths never to be seen again is its fantastic cast. With the exception of the main character Jen's boyfriend, everyone in this film is giving it 110%. Key duo Edward Furlong and Cerina Vincent (watch this girl, she is totally wicked) both hand in warm, sympathetic performances that make you really want them to make it out alive, and Amber Benson gives a good go of it as comic relief too.The acting alone elevates it from the sludge, but unfortunately there isn't a lot else to it. The ghost effects are cool, and for a while very creepy, providing some refreshingly genuine scares, but once it's revealed that they aren't the true villains their ability to terrify dwindles, plus they all but vanish from the movie for the second half anyway. The horror element of this movie feels really tacked on, like they had a thriller written but they needed a horror so they augmented it with some ghosts and a bit of gore. The gore is a nice bonus, but it's pretty straightforward in comparison with films like Shredder or Curse of the Forty-Niner's gleefully complex overkill. This movie doesn't do anything you haven't seen forty or fifty times before.It's a shame, as this is a genuinely enjoyable movie, but it's tarnished with the feeling it could of been a lot better, like they rushed to get it out. Add to this a soundmix that is so unbalanced I wound up turning the TV set up and down about ten or eleven times, and you can see why I say it just fails to excite as much as it might. All in all, you could do much much worse than Dead & Dying, and it's worth a rent purely for Cerina Vincent and Ed Furlong, but you could do a lot better too. Give it a shot, don't expect miracles.