DVD review: Dead Men Walking (2005)

A horrific plague infects a maximum security prison, turning visitors, guards and prisoners into viciousm flesh-eating beasts who slaughter all in their path. A heavily armed unit of elite guards band tgehther with the surviving inmates to battle the ravenous horde with barely a prayer of making it out alive. Dead Men Walking is written by Mike Watt and edited and directed by Peter Mervis. The acting is pretty decent. The camerawork and editing is good but in my opinion the editing does get annoying in places. It´s a fast-paced little flick with some plot holes but as usual I won´t go into details. The prison setting is cool and used very well and helps to create a nice atmosphere. There is no intentional comedy to be found in it. There are some small glitches in continuity and for instance it quite obvious that it is toyguns that they are using, we can see characters jerking the guns to simulate firing their, we hear the sound of gunfire but there are no muzzle flashes, no casings being ejected ... In some scenes we can see that they edited in the flash from the gun in post-production. We get fast and agile zombies and not the slow ones that I do prefer. Gorehounds out there will be pleased, it´s gory and it´s all old school practical make-up fx and it looks pretty good, we get plenty of shotguns blasts to face, cannibalism, limbs being ripped of and so on. There is some brief topless nudity in this.
This review is based upon the region 1 DVD release from Timeless Media Group.
Rating: 5 out of 7. I really enjoyed this, sure it has some flaws but the filmmakers utilize the prison setting to good effect, it´s very gory and fast and furious. Recommended to fans of the zombie genre.
/JL