Awaken the Dead

USA • 2007 • 102m •

• Directed by: Jeff Brookshire. • Starring: Gary Kohn, Lindsey Morris, Nate Witty, Mike Nyman, Paul Dion Monte, Will Harris, Aurora Corcuera, Dominiqua Alexis, Jeremy Jones, Sharon Senina, Krissy Sugatan, Robert Milo Andrus, Jane Lee. • Music by: Nathan Bonell, Ashkon Stone.

Two down and out strangers are brought together by mysterious letters into a safe house as the world around them is infected by an experimental virus that transforms the living into the living dead. She is a former prostitute hiding from the world. He is a former assassin turned priest who has renounced violence. Together they must unravel the mystery of the letters if they hope to survive.

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Review:

I tend to be undemanding with micro-budgeted horrors, especially when they are made by inexperienced filmmakers. I'm predisposed to look on the bright side, to excuse technical limitations, clunky scripts, plot holes, incompetent direction, bad acting, etc. Instead, I'll focus on the positives: the odd witty line of dialogue, a gripping plot, interesting characters, an unexpected exceptional performance, isolated pieces of directorial flair, surprisingly imaginative and effective special effects and stunt work, or even a well-chosen soundtrack. Things that show promise of future growth, of better movies down the line.

This movie contains none of these things. In fact, it may well be the worst movie I've ever managed to sit through from beginning to end. The barely competent direction and cinematography tries for style, but ends up pretentious and annoying. The grainy and colourless (almost monochrome) visuals don't seem to be the fault of technical limitations, but rather an aesthetic choice that simply doesn't work. The plot is senseless, the characters worthless clichés; the dialogue tries to be witty, but fails. The effects are unconvincing even when the budget is taken into account. There are no shocks, no scares, no laughs, no thrills of any kind. There are a lot of tracks on the soundtrack (in fact, much of the movie plays like a series of music videos), but they are uniformly lame. The acting never gets above adequate, and is often far below that level. You can tell that the three lead actors are better than their material, but there is nothing here for them to work with.

As bad as this movie is, I recognise that completing any kind of movie is very difficult, and I have to give the filmmakers credit for their effort. I wish them all the best for their careers. From here, the only way is up.

Review by jic-1 from the Internet Movie Database.

Off-Site Reviews:

Nov 5 2017, 02:17

Awaken The Dead (Movie Review).

Nov 5 2017, 02:16

Awaken the Dead - DVD Review.

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