I have to somewhat admire the chutzpah of Bill Hinzman for releasing one of the worst horror films of the 1980s. I also have to admire the chutzpah of Shriek for giving this one the star treatment on DVD. The acting is pretty bad, the special effects are so-so and the plot is pretty derivative of anything George Romero has done. And it also adds to the charm of it all.
Story goes like this; a farmer pulls up a tree trunk while clearing some land and exposes a wooden coffin containing Bill Hinzman who's been buried there for the last 20 years or so. Ever since his appearance in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968), right? He pulls the farmer down in the coffin and starts chewing on his neck.
Some college students are having a party in the woods, drinking lots of Iron City Beer (I'm sure Iron City appreciated the plug) and they start getting bitten by Hinzman and the farmer who by now has turned into a zombie, himself.
The remaining students flee and barricade themselves inside a farmhouse, but the zombies break through and kill most of them. From there it spreads like wildfire just like it did back in 1968 as more and more people in the surrounding area are bitten. I thought the scene of the dead mutilated cop rising up out of the drivers seat of his squad car and getting shot in the head (or what was left of it) was pretty funny. So were the remaining scenes of the zombies getting shot by the locals. The whole thing looked so amateurish that I had to laugh at it all.
The Shriek DVD does the best it can with the 16mm film print and the crappy sound. I think while they were filming this thing, they didn't have the directional microphones pointing in the right direction because the volume of the dialog suddenly gets louder in parts. I also think there was some clumsy overdubbing done but I can't confirm this.
Extras include a long slide show of stills made during filming (man, they must have gone through a couple of rolls of film!) and an hour long interview with Hinzman and a couple of the crew. Filmed outside beautiful Pittsburgh, of course. Where else? (laughs)
Since it's so bad it's good, I think I'm gonna be generous about it.
5 out of 10
Story goes like this; a farmer pulls up a tree trunk while clearing some land and exposes a wooden coffin containing Bill Hinzman who's been buried there for the last 20 years or so. Ever since his appearance in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968), right? He pulls the farmer down in the coffin and starts chewing on his neck.
Some college students are having a party in the woods, drinking lots of Iron City Beer (I'm sure Iron City appreciated the plug) and they start getting bitten by Hinzman and the farmer who by now has turned into a zombie, himself.
The remaining students flee and barricade themselves inside a farmhouse, but the zombies break through and kill most of them. From there it spreads like wildfire just like it did back in 1968 as more and more people in the surrounding area are bitten. I thought the scene of the dead mutilated cop rising up out of the drivers seat of his squad car and getting shot in the head (or what was left of it) was pretty funny. So were the remaining scenes of the zombies getting shot by the locals. The whole thing looked so amateurish that I had to laugh at it all.
The Shriek DVD does the best it can with the 16mm film print and the crappy sound. I think while they were filming this thing, they didn't have the directional microphones pointing in the right direction because the volume of the dialog suddenly gets louder in parts. I also think there was some clumsy overdubbing done but I can't confirm this.
Extras include a long slide show of stills made during filming (man, they must have gone through a couple of rolls of film!) and an hour long interview with Hinzman and a couple of the crew. Filmed outside beautiful Pittsburgh, of course. Where else? (laughs)
Since it's so bad it's good, I think I'm gonna be generous about it.
5 out of 10