DVD review: Bath Salt Zombies (2013)

The bath salts epidemic facing the southern and mid-western US has been stifled by an unprecedented government crackdown. This has led to a tremendous amount of surplus stock hidden by black market dealers, and a migration of those dealers to the northeast. In New York City, potent strands have surfaced and have attracted the most devoted bath salt junkies. A young aspiring chemist has developed an even stronger batch... but something has gone horribly wrong. The new ultra potent bath salt batch has revealed a major side effect: It turns users into violent flesh seeking ZOMBIES! Bath Salt Zombies is written by Clint Weiler and Dustin Wayde Mills who also is the director besides being responsible for the cinematography, editing and scoring the soundtrack. Oh, I forgot, he also plays on of the major characters, yup it´s safe to say that Dustin is something of a jack of all trades. The acting is pretty good in this, the camerawork and editing is good and the visuals are surprisingly nice but keep in mind that it is made on a low budget. There is frequent use of green screen and some of the enviroments/backgrounds are computer rendered. The pacing is good, some scenes do have a really nice atmosphere and tension (won´t go into details due to spoilers). The fightscenes are heavily stylized and gory. There is a shootout where a DEA agent takes on group of gangsters by himself, it´s nicely set up, well shot and choreographed. It´s a brutal and gory shootout as the agent goes through the house while wiping out the opposition but it is a action setpiece that could have been f*cking great but its impact is a bit dampened by the fact that the squibs are computer rendered. On the topic of gore, Bath Salt Zombies is gory and it is a mix of some practical fx and a lot of computer rendered fx. The Makeup and Creature FX is handled by Dustin Wayde Mills and Sherriah Salkil. Dustin is also involved in the Visual FX. I think some might have a problem with the Bath Salt Zombie design which is stylized and cartoonish.
There´s gratuitous T & A, including full frontal female nudity from Bella Demente, and sex.
This review is based upon the region all (Region 0) DVD release from MVD Entertainment Group.
Rating: 5½ out of 7. I enjoyed Bath Salt Zombies, Dustin Wayde Mills keeps impressing me and if he can do this with limited resources at hand the mind simply staggers thinking of what he could pull off with a proper budget.

/JL