Lord of the Dead DVD

Review written by DJBenz

Studio - Parker Films

Written by Greg Parker

Directed by Greg Parker

Runtime - 85 Minutes

Not Rated

The Cast

Greg Parker - Steve
Kathy Karly - Stacy
Manny Giudice - Officer Omally
Dick Mullaney - Dr. Anthraxx
Barry Ayash - Jack
Pete Fuino - Fred
Rachel Wilkenson - Jill
Carrie McCrossen - Rubber band factory hotty
Brant Riggs - Police sgt.
David Gervassi - Dr.
Heather Giudice - Hot Secretary
David Davin - Mike Parker

The Story

When local retard Steve Dawson (Greg Parker) takes a tumble off his bike, good samaritan and nurse, Stacy (Kathy Karly) takes him in and nurses him back to health. What she doesn't realise is that Steve holds a dark secret; after finding a strange looking book in the cellar of his house and reading the text aloud he has been possessed by the spirits of the undead.

At night, Steve makes the transition from brain-dead idiot into the Lord of the Dead, a mutated brain-dead idiot complete with roast turkey shaped head! He sucks out the souls of his victims until they become zombie minions, desparate to do their master's every bidding.

When Steve is confronted by evil Demon Uru, his secret is explained and he meets his father Osiris. Can Steve remove the curse? Can he escape the legions of the undead? Will he get eggs for dinner? Does nurse Stacy wear her uniform 24/7? Find out the answers when you watch Lord of the Dead

Thoughts

In the never ending search for low-budget gold, you need to sift through an awful lot of dross to find the precious metal. While not quite falling into the scrap bin, Greg Parker's Lord of the Dead is at least a rough nugget you'd want to keep hold of, just out of curiosity. Sure, the cast of friends and volunteers puts in a wooden performance and the editing, in places, is so bad there are painfully long pauses between lines of dialogue. But this is bedroom movie making, created by enthusiasts on a tiny budget and for that you have to overlook some of the flaws.

It's not all bad though. Parker has taken a good first step and created a reasonably original story, with some fun (if not a little rubbery) special effects. These effects are somewhat overused though, with every soul sucking scene a carbon copy of the last and each one shown in full, the only difference being the way Steve finally kills off the victim afterwards. $1,500 of the overall $2,500 budget was spent on special effects and it shows. Plenty of masks, prosthestics and fake blood show a genuine passion to make a good, gooey, gory funfest.

The thing that did the movie the most harm, for me, was the character of Steve, the harmless retard, as the part is so overplayed it becomes tiring very quickly. Simply screeching the same line over and over doesn't make for an amusing character. When he shuts his mouth, he actualy raises a few smiles. Thankfully, the two least wooden actors have been chosen for the lead roles and although they're still pretty lame they're not half as bad as some of the others.

Overall it's not too bad as a first feature. It has its flaws (mainly the acting), but it has a few redeeming features too (the special effects work). I will shortly be looking at Greg Parker's second film, Blade of Death and looking forward to seeing how he has developed as a film maker.

Picture

This is a Region free NTSC DVD-R. The picture is typically bright and vivid as one would expect with digital video, but a few glitches appear on the picture every so often. The aspect ratio looks to have been cropped to approximately 2.35:1 as the tops of people's heads appear chopped off for a lot of the movie. Also, the DVD has been authored with no chapter stops, which makes it rather inconvenient if you need to take a break and return later.

Sound

A stereo soundtrack accompanies the movie, and it's a varied state of affairs; Dialogue is clear, but sometimes far too loud for comfortable listening.

Special Features