DEAD AND DEADER

Quinn (Dean Cain) leads a platoon of US troops through a Cambodian village one night. They stumble across the missing troops they've been searching for, but all appear to have died - that is, until one bursts into life and attacks them.

Shots are fired, a soldier is bitten and madness ensues as a grenade is accidentally detonated. The men all fall to the floor dead, and a glass cage containing several scorpions is shattered ...

Back in the US, Quinn's corpse is being prepared for autopsy. However, he awakes on the morgue slab and begins chatting away amiably with the coroner. Despite having no vital signs whatsoever, Quinn is unaware that he has died in combat.

As he talks, he begins to feel an intense pain inside his arm - he hacks it open and a scorpion crawls out.

The coroner wants to run more tests, but Quinn understandably wants to know "what the Hell is going on". It's only when the coroner persuades Quinn to let the sexy Dr Adams (Ellie Cornell, HOUSE OF THE DEAD) inspect him, that she explains how all of his platoon were pronounced DOA and are ready to be shipped to their prospective homes. But are they actually dead?

It would appear not, and Quinn determines to track them all down and kill them before they can embark on zombified flesh-eating rampages.

He manages to locate his buddy Cruz first. As they scrap it out in the Army base kitchen, Quinn discovers they can only be killed by destroying the head - or in Cruz's case, decapitating him. As Cruz's head falls to the floor, a scorpion crawls out of his neck wound.

Quinn, Adams and the cook go on the run after being charged with Cruz's murder and sentenced to military prison. Now all they have to do is track down the individual members of the zombie platoon, kill them, and keep Quinn's own flesh-eating urges at bay ...

DEAD AND DEADER benefits hugely from a likeable cast knowingly hamming up it's silly script. Cain is well cast in the lead, and finds the right balance of comical and heroic to fit the bill.

The film is fast-paced and frequently gory, boasting some surprisingly good FX work (Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger helped out, ands it shows).

The movie is daft, certainly, and it's being touted as a "zomedy" (what a horrible term). It's not a clear comedy like SHAUN OF THE DEAD, more akin to RE-ANIMATOR - with one-liners in the tradition of, say, THE LAST BOY SCOUT.

In fact, fans of the RE-ANIMATOR movies should enjoy this a lot.

Anchor Bay / Starz have done a good job with the film's presentation. Presented uncut in it's original 1.78:1 ratio, DEAD AND DEADER has been anamorphically enhanced for 16x9 TVs.

Images are clear and sharp, though a little dark.

The English audio is available in both 2.0 and 5.1 mixes. Both are great, solid affairs.

The film can be accessed via 8 chapters.

Extras include an interesting commentary track from writer Steve Kriozere and producer Mark Altman, where they reveal - amongst other things - that the film was originally made for the Sci-Fi Channel. There's decent anecdotes from these two throughout, with Kriozere in particular appearing very flattered at the efforts of all onscreen.

A 34-minute Making Of documentary follows, which includes lots of post-production interviews with cast and crew members, plus plenty of rehearsal and on-set footage. It's a very slick production, like the main feature.

Elsewhere we get a gallery of stills from the film (38 photos).

Finally, the screenplay is downloadable in DVD ROM format.

Better than I'd anticipated. Ignore the stupid title and the hideous phrase "zomedy", and you'll be pleasantly surprised ...

Review by Stu Willis