DVD Review: The Dead and the Damned

The Dead and the Damned is presented by Inception Media Group as an action-packed mutant zombie movie in widescreen and digital surround sound.

Mortimer, played by David A. Lockhart, is a bounty hunter in search of criminals. He is a man with a mission, working to collect enough money for his pregnant girlfriend to save the family ranch. His latest gig is to bring back alive Brother Wolf (Rick Mora) who, it's claimed, raped and killed a white girl from a prominent family.

After Mortimer buys Rhianna (Camille Montgomery), being sold in town, he takes her into the woods to trap Brother Wolf. After tying her up as bait, he sets himself up to ambush the man. While waiting, he nods off and Brother Wolf removes the bullets from his gun. Mortimer must now rely on his wits and his fists to capture his quarry.

Unbeknownst to the trio, back in town, miners have found a weird rock, and after digging it up, they return to the town to show off their prize. The townsfolk are bewildered and after cracking it open, spores pour out infecting everyone in the immediate vicinity.

Back in the woods, Mortimer has finally captured Brother Wolf alive. He has him bound and shackled, however, on the way back to town, Mortimer is shot at by another bounty hunter, The German (Robert Amstler). After an exchange of gunfire, The German is attacked by the mutant zombies, allowing the threesome to get away.

Not knowing what they are in for, the three come to realize that the woods are full of these demons and quickly head back to town. After arriving back in Jamestown, they find it empty of townsfolk and decide to hole up for the night in the town's saloon. After a relative calm, all hell breaks loose as the mutant zombies come to feed. Will they get out alive or become one of the hungry, mutant dead themselves??

The Dead and the Damned definitely falls into your B class of movie; the sets and costumes are not as authentic as you would wish. You can notice the sewing machine stitching in Brother Wolf's pants and the town is made of plywood, which was not invented until World War II. The acting is second rate and the plot is minimal at best.

Written and Directed by Rene Perez, this movie has many interesting aspects that could have been more substantially developed, but instead we are left with scenes of gratuitous breast shots without any real significance to the movie. In one scene, we are shown a young woman bathing in the middle of nowhere. Standing behind the bushes is one of the men who find the meteorite, however, there is no real substance of why this scene is included, other than to show some female skin. I found it to be tasteless and not required.

We are not shown when the meteorite actually falls, nor how the two men find it. There is absolutely no back story on the meteorite and I felt it was a significant part of the story that was lacking. I could see where the director wished to go with this film, and with better editing, these things may have been included, however, the editing aspects of the film may have hindered its overall presentation.

I loved the zombies and thought the makeup was great!! The special effects were decent for a low budget film as well as, some of the extras gave a great performance. With a little more experience, I can see Camille Montgomery performing in more productions of this genre. She played a great victim.

The only feature on the DVD was the movie's trailer.

Article first published as DVD Review: The Dead and the Damned on Blogcritics.

** Disclosure: I did not accept any compensation from the sponsors other than review copies, my views are my own, reviewed by me..as I see it~!! **