ForeverDead

Forever Dead (2007)

So this is another low budget zombie movie, this time from director Christine Parker. An escaped lab rabbit goes on a rampage and bites a few people that it runs into. Anyone it bites turns into a zombie and anyone that zombie bites turns into a zombie. We then have 45 minutes getting a motley crew of characters trapped in a house, including the daughter of a victim, a woman who had to shot her boyfriend, two would be hold up men, a crazy researcher who is responsible for the rabbit, and his boss. They all end up trapped in a house trying to survive the zombie onslaught. So do they? I don’t really want to say, in case you decide to check out Forever Dead.

I’m really torn on this movie. The movie is 100 minutes long, which is a bit much for an independent movie. But there is always something interesting to the story happening and in spite of the length I never found myself bored with it. Now I do think the movie takes a bit too long introducing the characters, only to kill them off or have them disappear for long stretches of time. There are also a couple coincidences and characters that seemingly should know each other when the big twist at the end is revealed that I found hard to swallow. But then some of the relationships that are revealed in the flashback aren’t that obvious so it might not bug everyone as much as it did me. At it’s core the story of Forever Dead is a basic zombie survival tale with an interesting but kind of silly love triangle tossed in for good measure. While it might not be perfect I do give Parker (who also wrote the movie with Mulligan) some credit for trying a new twist on an old story. There is also a comedic undertone to the movie that I dig on. I mean there is a zombie rabbit that shows up on screen every so often!

The acting from the cast is a mixed bag, with some being mediocre and some being pretty damn entertaining. But there isn’t a really bad actor in the bunch. Given that this is an ensemble cast that is damn impressive. Bill Mulligan (who also co-wrote) steals many of the scenes he is in as Adam Dumas (say the name and get the joke?) who knows a bit more about what is going on then he lets on. Also I thought that Patrick Loree was fun as Jeff Lupus, who gets many of the best lines and gets to play crazy for most of the movie.

Forever Dead suffers from some odd camera angles and poor lighting that make some of the scenes hard to watch. I think some of this stems from trying to be too creative (odd angles) and equipment (many of the night shots are grainy and poorly light). Neither of these defects are deal breakers for me, but they are noticeable. Where the movie really excels is in some of the gore. You get some faces ripped off, chests ripped open, intestines being chewed up, and best of all a zombie rabbit puppet that has to be seen. Sometimes the effects are a bit silly (zombie rabbit come to mind) but as I mentioned before the whole movie has a sort of goofy vibe that this fits with nicely. I will say the one really annoying thing that bugged me about Forever Dead was the music. I understand independent filmmakers have a limited catalog to choose from when putting together a score for their film, but none of the music really fits the scenes it is paired up with. It is so bad that I found it annoying enough that it was pulling my attention away from the screen. The one exception is when Dumas is burying what he had in his trunk. The selection for this scene was brilliant, other than that it was terrible.

When doing my research on this movie I noticed that there are a lot of people out there that are really hard on this one. Is Forever Dead a perfect movie? Not really. As I’ve already mentioned I have some issues with it. But if you are a fan of independent movies, especially those with zombies running around then this one might be for you. Just don’t expect a polished Hollywood production and have some fun. I’m going to be keeping an eye out on what Christine Parker does in the future; I think she has some real promise. For more information on where you can pick up Forever Dead head over to the website at http://www.theforeverdead.com/

2 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer