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Vengeance of the Dead
Tempe Entertainment // R
List Price: $14.99 [Buy now and save at Tempevideo]
Vengeance of the Dead isn't quite as straightforward as the title would suggest. There are no flesh-munching zombies or an armada of earthbound spirits, hellbent on wreaking havoc on the world of the living. This low-key thriller, which was originally and more accurately titled Sleepwalker, is centered around Eric, a young man who presumably would not expect a visit to his grandfather to include haunting visions of the violent murder of a family decades earlier. The ghost of a slain child and her mother appear before Eric, though he's not immediately aware of the effects of their presence. As he sleeps at night, Eric sleepwalks, unwittingly exacting fiery revenge on their murderers.
Vengeance of the Dead is a fairly effective supernatural thriller, though the pacing is slugging and the narrative teeters on being a little too clunky and confusing. Perhaps its greatest benefit is the considerable amount of talent behind the camera. Though one of the film's most memorable shots -- a gorgeous flash of lightning during a grave-digging scene -- was a happy accident, directors Don Adams and Harry James Picardi have little trouble tossing out more. The image of the young girl in a swing, hovering above Eric's bed, stands out in my mind. Despite not having much of a budget to work with, an exploding bus and one actor engulfed in flames make the film look pricier than it is. This definitely isn't traditional Full Moon fare. There's precious little gore, with any graphic grue limited to a single brief shot (and you can correctly interpret 'shot' in a couple of different ways). Though there is a contingent of horror fans that craves nudity in any form, its presence here is so creepy that even that crowd would probably be turned off. Cheap jump scares are carefully avoided, and the way that the quick bursts of visions from the past become increasingly detailed as the movie progresses is fairly well done. Perhaps most notably, not a frame of Vengeance of the Dead was shot in Romania, and yes, it boggles the mind that a film bearing the Full Moon logo could accomplish such a feat.
Most will probably find Vengeance of the Dead a little too slow moving and may not feel as if the ending, when it arrives, is enough of a payoff. My reaction was somewhat indifferent. I enjoyed the film, I suppose, despite some of its flaws. This is the sort of movie I passively watch, not really feeling sucked into the story, but not pissed off that I've wasted an hour and a half with it. Writing a review of even this short length seems excessive. If someone were to ask me what I thought, I'd probably just shrug, mutter something along the lines of "it was okay, I guess", and leave it at that. As a rental for a couple of bucks, you could do a lot worse, though, and this disc is packed to the gills with extras.
Video: Vengeance of the Dead was shot with essentially no budget on 16mm over a considerably long period of time. With this sort of production, it's rather difficult to tell how many of the issues related to its presentation can be attributed to the video transfer and how much stems from the way the source material has always appeared. Aside from some very heavy grain, the full-frame video really isn't all that bad, though it does have the sort of "when the hell was the shot?" look of most of Troma's DVD output. Colors are all over the map, sometimes dull and washed out, while other portions seem to offer more of an accurate reproduction. The print doesn't exhibit any signs of extensive wear, nor is it marred by a heavy amount of dust and specks. Detail is none too spectacular either, but this is probably due to the source material as well. The blue flames in the title sequence, clearly made long after the rest of the film had wrapped, look rather sharp, which supports that theory, I guess. At two different points in the film, I did spot some strange digital artifacts. It looked almost as if part of the frame were frozen and smeared while the rest of the image moved along as normal. I'd provide time codes as a reference, but the DVD doesn't support that, unfortunately. This could be an issue with my Toshiba SD-3109 player, but these strange effects, which only last a couple of seconds each, didn't look like the sort of breakup caused by scratches and thumbprints on the disc. Vengeance of the Dead is not a DVD I'd recommend watching on the basis of its video quality alone, and though it is somewhat underwhelming, this disc is probably the best that can be expected, given its origins. The film's director doesn't seem distressed by the end result in the commentary track, and if it's good enough for him...
Audio: Not much to say here. The Dolby Digital stereo track on Vengeance of the Dead sounds exactly as you would expect it to. There aren't any monstrous problems worth noting, and its general unimpressiveness can be attributed to the film's budget. Not every movie cries out for the 5.1 treatment, and what's offered here is passable.
Supplements: As is the case with most of Full Moon's Lunar Edition releases, there's no shortage of supplemental material here.
One side of the disc includes a commentary for Vengeance of the Dead by writer/director/producer/editor Don Adams, which serves as an excellent discussion of filmmaking at used car prices. His very dry sense of humor reminded me of Brett Piper's commentary on A Nymphoid Barbarian In Dinosaur Hell, though Adams understandably has a bit more affection for his work (and like Piper's movie, Vengeance of the Dead also underwent a somewhat misleading title change at the behest of its distributor). Any filmmaker that mentions Dario Argento, The Changeling, and the merciless beating of people unfamiliar with Stanley Kubrick in the space of an hour is worth remembering. Plenty of production anecdotes are tossed in, such as how 'Grandpa' was originally going to be doing something a little more lascivious while spying on his showering granddaughter, how certain portions were filmed in his family's rather eerie basement, when a neighbor's house was nearly burned down, and the generosity of one fella who let him blow up an old school bus on his property. This is one of those rare commentaries that's actually a lot more entertaining than the film itself.
Also on the first side is a teaser for a movie entitled War Wolf, which sports some decent production values, along with a making-of featurette. War Wolf looks to be a civil war-era werewolf flick, and in the teaser, the afflicted soldier asks for a hooker (played by Cinemax After Dark mainstay Amber Newman) to chain him up, which she misinterprets as general kinkiness. Needless to say, things don't end well for Ms. Newman. Finally, there are trailers for Morgana, Demonicus, Vengeance of the Dead, and Witchouse 3: Demon Fire.
The flipside of the disc covers more work from Adams' 3 AM Films. First up is Shreck, entirely unrelated to last year's dismal computer animated smash hit from Dreamworks. The shot-on-video short film is about a group of deranged Columbine-ish teenagers who revive a Nazi war criminal and find themselves tortured by his spirit. It's the sort of movie that is horrendously corny in its execution but really does seem as if it could make for a pretty good flick, given the proper treatment. As was the case with Vengeance of the Dead, Shreck is accompanied by a really great commentary track by Don Adams, and there's some additional behind the scenes footage as well.
A third making-of featurette is provided, this time for Red Eyes, an unreleased anthology from Adams and crew. A series of local news reports on various 3 AM productions are also packed onto the disc, along with a music video for Graphic Nature's "I Know".
Conclusion: Vengeance of the Dead is a decent low-budget effort backed by a pretty wonderful DVD, and Tempe Video's site carries the disc for the rather low price of $15. Despite of the material included on this DVD, it's still probably best suited to a rental. Though the supplements will take quite a while to sift through, I didn't quite get the impression that I'd be revisiting Vengeance of the Dead too often in the coming months. It's decidedly different from what I've come to expect from Full Moon, and fans of more subdued, low-budget supernatural suspense may want to give it at least one spin in their DVD players.
Vengeance of the Dead is only available in a limited pressing available through Tempe Video and its distributors. Those who are interested can order a copy directly from TempeVideo.com for $14.99.
Vengeance of the Dead is a fairly effective supernatural thriller, though the pacing is slugging and the narrative teeters on being a little too clunky and confusing. Perhaps its greatest benefit is the considerable amount of talent behind the camera. Though one of the film's most memorable shots -- a gorgeous flash of lightning during a grave-digging scene -- was a happy accident, directors Don Adams and Harry James Picardi have little trouble tossing out more. The image of the young girl in a swing, hovering above Eric's bed, stands out in my mind. Despite not having much of a budget to work with, an exploding bus and one actor engulfed in flames make the film look pricier than it is. This definitely isn't traditional Full Moon fare. There's precious little gore, with any graphic grue limited to a single brief shot (and you can correctly interpret 'shot' in a couple of different ways). Though there is a contingent of horror fans that craves nudity in any form, its presence here is so creepy that even that crowd would probably be turned off. Cheap jump scares are carefully avoided, and the way that the quick bursts of visions from the past become increasingly detailed as the movie progresses is fairly well done. Perhaps most notably, not a frame of Vengeance of the Dead was shot in Romania, and yes, it boggles the mind that a film bearing the Full Moon logo could accomplish such a feat.
Most will probably find Vengeance of the Dead a little too slow moving and may not feel as if the ending, when it arrives, is enough of a payoff. My reaction was somewhat indifferent. I enjoyed the film, I suppose, despite some of its flaws. This is the sort of movie I passively watch, not really feeling sucked into the story, but not pissed off that I've wasted an hour and a half with it. Writing a review of even this short length seems excessive. If someone were to ask me what I thought, I'd probably just shrug, mutter something along the lines of "it was okay, I guess", and leave it at that. As a rental for a couple of bucks, you could do a lot worse, though, and this disc is packed to the gills with extras.
Video: Vengeance of the Dead was shot with essentially no budget on 16mm over a considerably long period of time. With this sort of production, it's rather difficult to tell how many of the issues related to its presentation can be attributed to the video transfer and how much stems from the way the source material has always appeared. Aside from some very heavy grain, the full-frame video really isn't all that bad, though it does have the sort of "when the hell was the shot?" look of most of Troma's DVD output. Colors are all over the map, sometimes dull and washed out, while other portions seem to offer more of an accurate reproduction. The print doesn't exhibit any signs of extensive wear, nor is it marred by a heavy amount of dust and specks. Detail is none too spectacular either, but this is probably due to the source material as well. The blue flames in the title sequence, clearly made long after the rest of the film had wrapped, look rather sharp, which supports that theory, I guess. At two different points in the film, I did spot some strange digital artifacts. It looked almost as if part of the frame were frozen and smeared while the rest of the image moved along as normal. I'd provide time codes as a reference, but the DVD doesn't support that, unfortunately. This could be an issue with my Toshiba SD-3109 player, but these strange effects, which only last a couple of seconds each, didn't look like the sort of breakup caused by scratches and thumbprints on the disc. Vengeance of the Dead is not a DVD I'd recommend watching on the basis of its video quality alone, and though it is somewhat underwhelming, this disc is probably the best that can be expected, given its origins. The film's director doesn't seem distressed by the end result in the commentary track, and if it's good enough for him...
Audio: Not much to say here. The Dolby Digital stereo track on Vengeance of the Dead sounds exactly as you would expect it to. There aren't any monstrous problems worth noting, and its general unimpressiveness can be attributed to the film's budget. Not every movie cries out for the 5.1 treatment, and what's offered here is passable.
Supplements: As is the case with most of Full Moon's Lunar Edition releases, there's no shortage of supplemental material here.
One side of the disc includes a commentary for Vengeance of the Dead by writer/director/producer/editor Don Adams, which serves as an excellent discussion of filmmaking at used car prices. His very dry sense of humor reminded me of Brett Piper's commentary on A Nymphoid Barbarian In Dinosaur Hell, though Adams understandably has a bit more affection for his work (and like Piper's movie, Vengeance of the Dead also underwent a somewhat misleading title change at the behest of its distributor). Any filmmaker that mentions Dario Argento, The Changeling, and the merciless beating of people unfamiliar with Stanley Kubrick in the space of an hour is worth remembering. Plenty of production anecdotes are tossed in, such as how 'Grandpa' was originally going to be doing something a little more lascivious while spying on his showering granddaughter, how certain portions were filmed in his family's rather eerie basement, when a neighbor's house was nearly burned down, and the generosity of one fella who let him blow up an old school bus on his property. This is one of those rare commentaries that's actually a lot more entertaining than the film itself.
Also on the first side is a teaser for a movie entitled War Wolf, which sports some decent production values, along with a making-of featurette. War Wolf looks to be a civil war-era werewolf flick, and in the teaser, the afflicted soldier asks for a hooker (played by Cinemax After Dark mainstay Amber Newman) to chain him up, which she misinterprets as general kinkiness. Needless to say, things don't end well for Ms. Newman. Finally, there are trailers for Morgana, Demonicus, Vengeance of the Dead, and Witchouse 3: Demon Fire.
The flipside of the disc covers more work from Adams' 3 AM Films. First up is Shreck, entirely unrelated to last year's dismal computer animated smash hit from Dreamworks. The shot-on-video short film is about a group of deranged Columbine-ish teenagers who revive a Nazi war criminal and find themselves tortured by his spirit. It's the sort of movie that is horrendously corny in its execution but really does seem as if it could make for a pretty good flick, given the proper treatment. As was the case with Vengeance of the Dead, Shreck is accompanied by a really great commentary track by Don Adams, and there's some additional behind the scenes footage as well.
A third making-of featurette is provided, this time for Red Eyes, an unreleased anthology from Adams and crew. A series of local news reports on various 3 AM productions are also packed onto the disc, along with a music video for Graphic Nature's "I Know".
Conclusion: Vengeance of the Dead is a decent low-budget effort backed by a pretty wonderful DVD, and Tempe Video's site carries the disc for the rather low price of $15. Despite of the material included on this DVD, it's still probably best suited to a rental. Though the supplements will take quite a while to sift through, I didn't quite get the impression that I'd be revisiting Vengeance of the Dead too often in the coming months. It's decidedly different from what I've come to expect from Full Moon, and fans of more subdued, low-budget supernatural suspense may want to give it at least one spin in their DVD players.
Vengeance of the Dead is only available in a limited pressing available through Tempe Video and its distributors. Those who are interested can order a copy directly from TempeVideo.com for $14.99.
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