Review: STREET OF THE DEAD
I had the pleasure in watching a short zombie film called Street of the Dead that was written, staring and directed by Joe Pontillo. The movie is about a stoner that dares one of his stoner friends to eat a moldy sandwich and the mold eventually turns him into a zombie and he attacks all the friends but one. Soon, they start attacking everybody else on the block and turning them into zombies… now it’s up to a stoner, a psychotic gun-toting neighbor and mysterious assassin to stop the zombie outbreak from spreading. This movie was all over the place and it’s sort of like a screwball comedy that has zombies. There were several problems with the movie, but those problems made the movie enjoyable.
Street of the Dead, for a micro-budge film, was well written and what I mean by that is the dialogue was great. It’s written as a stoner movie and it has some pretty sporadic witty dialogue for a zombie flick and it fits. Some of the random humor made me laugh and I really enjoyed the psychotic gun-obsessed neighbor because he had some of the best lines.
As for the production value, I was really impressed. They got a very diverse group of people and they had good amount of zombies in it and considering the budget, they made a house look like a decent Oval Office. The director really wanted to make a zombie stoner movie and I think that he succeeded to a point. The film seems so innocent because, like the movie Pathogen, the movie has a lot of heart and when you see one of the characters handle a brain, it’s obvious that it is toy but you disregard it because of the intentions.
The only real problem that I had with this movie, that took me out of it a couple of times was the acting. Now, I don’t expect that indie movie will have award winning acting and I honestly, questionable acting comes with indie movies. This movie was mixed and there were times when the characters would crack a smile when they get eaten, or when they act like they are getting attacked but completely fold and just say, “Whatever, eat me.†It’s the body language. I think that the director should have noticed it when they were filming and should have re-shot the scene. Other than that, there isn’t anything else to complain about.
Overall, this is a micro-budget movie and it’s not bad. It’s certainly not the greatest zombie movie out there but for a movie that just wanted to be made… it’s good. If you are looking for anything more than just a made-for-the-hell-of-it movie, you’re not in luck. The makeup was okay, the production was great and I loved the dialogue but the acting spoiled a lot of it. Most of the gore was animated, which could look a little weird at times. If you are a die-hard zombie fan and love anything with zombies, give this a watch and if you like indie movies, try it out. The rest of you, I would avoid it cause it tends to get messy at times. I think the director has a good sense of writing and I don’t think he should quit making films, he just needs to learn from some previous mistakes.
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