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5
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10
= Highest Rating |
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SNEAK
PREVIEW
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DVD Release Date: March
28, 2006 |
The
second feature film from Fever Dreams, the production
arm of Media Blasters, Shadow:
Dead Riot blends the Women in Prison genre
with strong doses of gory zombie horror and Hong
Kong style martial arts action. This mixing of
genres is calculated for maximum appeal to exploitation
fans, as is some of the casting
Tony Todd's supernatural villain is obviously
a much more sanguinary take on his popular Candyman
character, while direct-to-video sex starlet Misty
Mundae (billed as "Erin Brown") is on
hand for the obligatory shower scene. (And
later on, some flesh munching.)
A pre-titles prologue introduces us to
a fearsome death row inmate nicknamed Shadow (Todd)
just moments before his execution by lethal injection.
Convicted of 22 murders, Shadow awaits his fate
in solitary confinement, bloodily carving occult
runes on his body and filing his teeth into a
shark's grin. After he's strapped down on the
death chamber gurney and dosed with poison, the
priest administering the last rites senses the
manifestation of an evil power
and then all hell breaks loose. Before it's over,
Shadow will be dead... but so will other occupants
of the prison, both inmates and guards. Faced
with an unbelievable situation beyond rational
explanation, the warden instigates an immediate
cover-up. Bodies
and pieces of bodies
are dumped into a hastily dug pit on the prison
grounds.
Flash forward 20 years. In the interim
the prison has undergone a significant makeover
not a physical one (since the joint seems in a
perpetual state of decay), but rather one of management
and 'guests'. Now an experimental rehabilitation
center for female offenders, the prison welcomes
its newest inmate: Solitaire (Carla Greene), a
tough, defiant young African-American woman who
doesn't fit the typical criminal profile. Solitaire's
desire to be left alone and keep to herself doesn't
jibe with the New Age approach of the female warden
(Nina Hodoruk), nor does it endear her to the
meanest bitch among the convicts, a hulking she-male
known as Mondo (Tatianna Butler). When Mondo and
her gang terrorize weak, doe-eyed Crystal (Mundae)
in the shower, Solitaire gallantly comes to the
girl's defense, demonstrating a high degree of
martial arts fighting skill as she wipes the floor
with her opponents. Playing the Good Samaritan
only gets her thrown in solitary by the hot-tempered,
Teutonically blonde head guard, Elsa Thorn (Andrea
Langi). She's placed in the same isolation cell
that once held Shadow. Here Solitaire makes an
ominous discovery
a strange, circular rune carved into the cement
floor...
Crafted with a professional slickness belying
its small production budget, Shadow:
Dead Riot almost
almost
puts paid to the notion that there's no such thing
as a good 'zombies in prison' movie. Precursors
Zombie
Death House (1987) and Beyond
Re-animator (2003) tried and failed, and those
films didn't have to concern themselves with sexploitation
and martial arts elements. That Shadow
does a decent job keeping these disparate balls
in the air simultaneously is a credit to the talents
involved, both behind and in front of the camera.
Carla Greene, a model who studied taekwondo in
college, makes a favorable impression in a demanding
debut role, while her similarly inexperienced
co-stars
most of the gals playing the other inmates have
no previous acting credits
also acquit themselves surprisingly well. (None
of them is such a horrible or awkward thesp as
to provoke groans or derisive laughter.) Of course
genre veteran Tony Todd is on very familiar ground
here, using his voice and imposing physical presence
to effortlessly conjure what is likely an attempt
to establish another franchise villain. But the
Shadow character is just too sketchily thought
out; we never learn where or how he developed
his formidable demonic powers. (Saved for the
sequel, perhaps?) And in some shots, regrettably,
when Todd is wearing a dreadlocks wig, he looks
like a nightmare vision of Whoopi Goldberg after
exposure to gamma rays. Not the intended effect
I'm sure.
In the above paragraph I suggested that
Shadow: Dead Riot
is almost a good zombies-in-prison movie.
It's certainly brimming with action, skin and
a plethora of juicy gore... Once Shadow's blood
is used to resurrect the dead convicts from the
secret burial pit, turning them into rampaging,
flesh-eating zombies, the grue flows freely and
often. (This is the goriest R-rated film I've
seen in ages.) Too bad, then, that the the dialog
so clichιd, the plot full of monstrously gaping
holes. How likely is it that the infamous mass
murderer of 22 people would be executed without
a single member of the press in attendance? Or
that the slaughter of scores of prisoners, not
to mention some of the guards, could be completely
hushed up? Very little of the story stands up
to the slightest scrutiny, as if writers Richard
Siegel and Michael Gingold (a former editor of
Fangoria magazine) were more concerned
with working in cheeky references to horror films
past than developing a solid plot. (Two of the
guards are named Franco and Rollin; there's a
breast-biting nod to Burial
Ground; famous screen zombies Bill Hinzman
[1968's Night
Of The Living Dead] and Captain Haggerty [Fulci's
Zombie]
appear as
you guessed it
zombies.) Yet the technical proficiency of director
Derek Wan (cinematographer for the Jet Li actioner
Fist Of Legend) and
martial arts choreographer Tony
Leung Siu-Hung (who apprenticed under Bruce
Lee and Jackie Chan), working with a talented
makeup effects team and an appealing cast, keep
the film from being shivved by the underdeveloped
script.
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| To
be released next month under Media Blasters' Shriek
Show imprint, Shadow: Dead
Riot is presented in anamorphic letterbox
format (1.77:1 AR) with two audio options, Dolby
5.1 and 2.0 stereo. Visually the transfer is first-rate;
of the two audio tracks the 2.0 mix actually sounded
fuller and more robust to my ears. Extras are light,
but what's provided is satisfactory. Along with
the theatrical trailer and an image gallery is a
behind-the-scenes featurette, Standing in the
Shadows of 'Shadow' (16 minutes). While mainly
a promotional piece it does provide an interesting
glimpse of the small but professional cast and crew
at work on location, detailing the rehearsal of
various fight scenes and how many of the makeup/gore
effects were achieved. The disc also comes with
more trailers for various Media Blasters DVDs, including
such titles as Anthropophagus,
Flesh For The Beast,
Hiruko
The Goblin and Neighbor
No. 13.
2/14/06 |
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