THE DEAD NEXT DOOR (1989)

[The Burgomaster]

I'm glad they finally got around to releasing this Super 8mm wonder on DVD.  Sure it's a copy of DAWN OF THE DEAD.  But that's okay . . . it's a very ambitious, energetic movie made by a young filmmaker.  Bravo for the effort, I say!

The movie has a very thin plot and essentially no character development, but who cares.  There is plenty of gore (the FX are better than you might expect) and the movie zooms along at break-neck speed for just under 80 minutes.  Virtually every scene is blood-soaked with everything from decapitations to disembowelments.

WORDS OF CAUTION:  You will get VERY tired of all the characters with "in-joke" names.  There are characters named Raimi, Carpenter, King, Savini . . . you get the picture.  It's amusing for about 5 minutes, then it just gets aggravating.

The picture is about as sharp as you can get from a Super 8mm print, and the audio has been remastered in 5.1 surround (and it actually sounds pretty damned good).  I picked this up for around $9.00, and it's worth every penny.

[Shadow]

I saw this in Best Buy over the weekend and almost bought it. Now, I will definitely check it out.