DVD review: The Dead and the Damned (Video 2011)

When a group of gold miners uneart a dangerous meteorite, they unleash an intergalatic plague that ravages their town and turns the population into blood-thirsty mutants. It´s up to high plains drifter and his arch-enemy, an indian warrior, to battle the zombies and save the Old West from the horrors of the dead and the damned. The Dead and the Damned is written, edited and directed by Rene Perez. The acting is pretty bad with one or two exceptions. Not much time is spent on plot or characters, we are barely a minute into the flick before the first gunfight ensues but after that it slows down considerably for some time. for a while it´s pretty clse to become boring as nothing happens but hen it picks up the pace again. The camerawork and editing is good. I´m wondering, and this is due to the synopsis on the DVD cover, are they mutants or zombies? If they are intended to be zombies I have a small problem of them being able being jump, run and sprint but that´s a matter of taste (I like the slow moving variant) but if they are mutants it´s ok that they do run and so on...  Even if The Dead and the Damned is more action than horror in this flick there is one particular scene that is tense, a bit creepy and very effective. Costumes, props and guns are pretty good considering the obviously limited budget. Some of the sets looks pretty cheap but keep in mind that it´s made on a low budget.
We get big juicy squibs (some practical and some cgi). Some of the squibs would have been messier and bloodier if the mutants/zombies bleed blood instead of green goo. The gore as people are consumed by the mutans/zombies is practical make-up fx and most of it looks good, the mutant/zombie make-up fx design varies, some look pretty bad while some look good. We get gratuitous topless nudity from not one but three different girls.
This review is based upon the region 1 DVD release from Inception.
Please note that this movie is also known as Cowboys & Zombies in some countries.
Rating: 3½ out of 7. I found it to be entertaining but beware The Dead and the Damned has it´s flaws, some are due to the low budget and it could use some editing in some parts. And why did they choose to go with green goo?

/JL