31 Nights of Terror #3 - The Video Dead (1987)

The Video Dead (1987)
Director: Robert Scott
Starring: Rocky Duvall, Roxanna Augesen
Format: VHS (Premiere)

- Name in the opening credits: Michael St Michaels. Nice pornstar name there buddy.
- Zombies that come out of a TV, even when it's unplugged. 15 years before Ringu.
- Both of the two main leads have just this movie to their name (according to IMDB.com). Not a good sign.
- Director Robert Scott has one other credit to his name. Ratdog (1990). Sounds like a winner.
- And one more fact from IMDB: The budget for this movie was apparently $80,000. I believe it.
- Dude warns you there's a TV that isn't really a TV and it could lead to the loss of lives. You find a TV in the attic and decide to turn it on. Ladies and gentlemen, your Moron of the Year.
- Zombies coming out of the TV bad. Naked hot blonde chick coming out of the TV? Not so bad.
- Oh boy, I can see why Rocky Duvall never worked again. His acting is so bad it's unintentionally funny.
- Speaking of bad, some of the camera work is pitiful.
- The zombie effects are, for the most part, not too bad.
- Laughing zombies? That's a new one.
- The old zombie hiding in the washing machine bit. If I've seen it once I've seen it... well, once now.
- These zombies like killing but they're not much for gut-munching. Maybe they're vegetarian?
- What kind of lame zombies get taken out by arrows?
- Zombie with a chainsaw! Run!
- Zombies that are afraid of mirrors. Zombies that can sense fear. Just give me plain old "braaaaains" zombies any day.
- Okay, that is the lamest method of "defeating" a group of zombies I have ever seen. So, so lame.
- And an uber-lame twist ending just to tie things off with a corny bow.

Overall thoughts: To make a successful horror comedy you need to achieve two things. Your movie should be funny and also have suspense and/or gore. The Video Dead fails on all counts. The thing is, it had the makings of a low budget version of Return of the Living Dead. Maybe with a more competent director and writer that could have been achieved. But instead we get horrible acting, bad camerawork, no laughs, no suspense. About the only positive is the zombie effects, which are average. I cannot imagine why anyone would want to see this movie a second time. In fact, the only reason most people would have seen it once has to be because of its awesome cover, which would have drawn in a few punters at the old video store. Definitely give this one a miss.