****SPOILERS*** Due to a failed experiment by the eminent Dr. Bow, Lester Clark, in trying to solve the ills of the world he created a virus that takes over the bodies of the dead and bring them back to life as flesh eating Zombies. This cost Dr. Bow his life who was killed and eaten by the Zombies before he could put a cure to this madness into effect by having it put on the open market. It's now four years later with the Zombies now outnumbering the living and and we see this anti-Zombie squad doing it's best to keep the tide of Zombies contained and from spreading although out the United States.The anti-Zombie squad lead by the sh*t kicking and take no BS commander Raimi, Peter Ferry, has the task of finding the dead Dr. Bow's secret papers in him finding a cure for the Zombie menace and with it inoculate the still living population before they get infected. It's Dr. Bow's assistant Dr. Moulsson's, Bagdan Pecic, job to complete the task that Dr. Bow failed to finish. But as it turns out Dr. Moulsson is more interested in the safety of his hat that he feels, like Dorothy's red slippers in "The Wizard of Oz", has magical powers that can do the job far better then Dr. Bow's vaccine! Added to all this insanity there's religious nut-case and cult leader Rev Jones, Robert Kokai, who's using the Zombies to his advantage in getting him, through his promises of saving the world, more followers who he in fact turns into Zombies themselves.****SPOILERS*** Mindless & gory Zombie movie with those that the Zombies kill and eat as well as the Zombies themselves, when their shot and run through, sprouts black, oily looking, not red blood! Despite Commander Raimi Herculean efforts to get the cure out to prevent the virus from infecting the dead or soon to be dead fails spectacularly because Dr.Moulsson's sloppy work in the laboratory. That in him looking after his magic hat more then the human population of the planet earth. Ramimi who was later attacked and bit by a Zombie ended up joining them when the serum that the incompetent Dr. Moulsson had "prefected" used on him totally backfired!

If there's anything I hate, it's revisiting a movie I loved when I was a kid, then returning to it and realizing that it's not a very good movie. Case in point: "The Dead Next Door." The debut feature from micro-budget mainstay J.R. Bookwalter, it was made in the span of five years, shot on 8 mm camera, and financed and produced by Sam Raimi. The film was a revelation to me when I saw it as a teen. A made for next to nothing zombie movie that actually delivered and had some neat ideas! Well, I then learned there were tons of zombie movies like this, and though this is essentially the most well loved of the of micro-budget zombie movies, revisiting it years later as a 27 year old man, I realize that it's just not a good movie.The premise deals with the inevitable rise of the zombie apocalypse, and a government group called The Zombie Squad that must exterminate the scourge of the dead. Our heroes Raimi (ugh) (Pete Ferry), Mercer (Michael Grossi) and others soon head to Ohio, only to run afoul of a religious cult lead by Rev. Jones (really???) (Robert Kokai) who believe it is God's will to let the dead wipe out humanity. Well, Mercer get's infected, and a cure is provided by Dr. Moulsson (Bogdan Pecic), which has some pretty bad side effects. Also, you know Jones is evil because he wears sunglasses at night (DON'T MESS WITH A MAN IN SHADES!!!) I really don't want to rip on "The Dead Next Door." The whole thing took years to complete, was clearly a labor of love for those involved, and it's easy to see why it's such a cult favorite among horror fans. It's all done with loads of energy and enthusiasm, and not only did Sam Raimi help fund it, but Bruce Campbell serves as one of the dubbed voices! Plus, the gore effects are incredible considering the budget (about $75,000) and a decent D.I.Y. cheap synthesizers and drum machine score by Bookwalter himself. Ripping on the movie almost makes me feel bad.Alas, it's still not a good movie. The acting is all around terrible, and the script is poorly written, giving us uninteresting, unsympathetic and all around drab characters who make increasingly stupid decisions. Hell, Dr. Moulsson is a a really bland villain of sorts, basically playing the arrogant scientist cliché poorly. And what kind of scientist wears a trucker hat anyways? (there's a lot of bad "only in Ohio" fashions from the 80's here.) Jones by the way, is just another insane cult leader, and it really doesn't help that the cult themselves feel more like a mild inconvenience than a serious threat.And speaking of the cult, this brings up another problem-the whole movie is inconsistent. At one moment, the cult is going on and on about what they believe to be God's wrath, and the next they're sacrificing women while wearing black robes. Seriously, what kind of cult is this? Then there's the zombies. At one moment their shambling, then they are sprinting. And why is it that some can be killed via a bullet to the head or decapitation, and some can't? Finally, low-budget directors: please refrain from naming characters after well known directors and figures in horror. We get it, you love horror movies.Again, I really don't want to be hard on "The Dead Next Door." It's obviously made for beer and cigarettes money, and everyone involved clearly gave it their all for years. Sadly, it didn't do it for me in the end. All the enthusiasm and love for the horror genre in the world doesn't mean you can do a good horror movie.

I truly wanted to love this movie in a big way. I knew Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell were involved. I knew that it was hailed as a classic. But I did not know that while overall a good time, the movie has long stretches of DULL. I guess director JR Bookwalter, who shows great talent actually, is a fan of Romero, and this kind of has the same flaws as Romero's work. Brilliance surrounded by stretches of DULL. Some amusing gore effects and action keep things from being too slow and there is some minor suspense generated here, but the hype must have just ruined some of it for me. I recommend it though, for it's use of Super 8 film in a time when people always use video and for doing the zombies right.

It's not to bad, you can tell the movie is old just by the effects and the picture and the acting, but actually it wasn't all that bad. The zombies were more funny that scary, and it almost made me chuckle a few times because they act sort of funny, running around mumbling, the gore was good, I like when the guy got his throat bitten out, and when the one police officers fingers got bitten off reminded me of a scene from the remake of Wes Craven's "The Hills Have Eyes" which was my favorite part in that movie, so it was kind of cool to see a similar scene in this movie. To be honest I'm not done watch the movie right now, and it seems nothing will really change my review on this movie cause it's almost over. But if you like horror movies, and zombies and gore, then check out this movie, I'm not got promise you'll like it because everybody's taste in movies in different, but all I know is I enjoyed it. So feel free to check this movie out.