Zombie Squad!

The Dead Next Door (1989)

Director- J.R. Bookwalter

Starring- Pete Ferry, Michael Grossi, Robert Kokai

Years after zombie infestation, a government agency called the "Zombie Squad" is out patrolling the region, exterminating zombies and and collecting un-exterminated ones for medical experimentation in hopes of finding a cure.

Raimi (Ferry), and his crew must find the lab of Dr. Bow, the doctor said to have inadvertantly started the infestation with his formula. Their mission is made more urgent when Mercer (Grossi) is bitten and infected. Dr. Moulsson (Bogdan Pecic, who couldn't be bothered to take off his cap for the role) accompanies them, caring more about the formula than the people infected.

Along the way, the crew runs afoul of a religious cult bent on keeping the zombies alive and believing them to be a sign of the coming apocalypse. The cult, led by Reverend Jones (Kokai) consists of run-of-the-mill cult psychos, as well as "brainwashed" kidnapping victims, including Dr. Bow's own daughter.

Moulsson finds the formula, and once it is concocted, he promptly injects the unconcious Mercer with it, not knowing what effect it will have. Mercer is soon after kidnapped by Rev. Jones, and the crew tracks him to his compound.

In saving Mercer all Hell breaks loose with gunshots and fanatics rushing soldiers. Rev. Jones flees to loose his hoard of zombies, getting himself killed in the process. Mercer turns into a zombie, but the formula reaction causes him to retain his human thought, a ghastly addition to his zombie urges.

The zombie infestation seems to be winning out by the end, and with the help of the formula, a new type of zombie evolves, and one of my favorite endings plays out, but with a great humorous twist.

Acting was bad, effects were cheap but well-thought-out. The story went along great--in fact, the story kept this movie alive in spite of the dismal budget. Also, the constant name-references to horror greats like John Carpenter, Tom Savini, and Sam Raimi (Bruce Campbell even did a couple voice overs!) was fitting. I was surprised there was no Jackson or Romero, however.

Rating: 3.5/5 Bonedaddies.

Not My Kind of Vacation Spot

Isle of the Dead (1945)
Director- Mark Robson
Starring- Borlis Karloff, Ellen Drew, Marc Cramer


Balkan War, 1912. General Pherides (Karloff), agrees to show Oliver (Cramer), a colleague, his wife's grave that happens to be located near their current battlefield. Finding the grave disturbed, the general demands to know whow's responsible. He finds out from a local woman that the townspeople did it out of a superstitious fear of vorvolaka (vampire) attacks, a fear spawned by the plague killing off large portions of the island. Initially highly skeptical of the vorvolaka story, the general gets himself sucked into the superstition, and becomes highly suspicious of a caretaker of an older woman. The older woman has a fainting disease which resembles death, accompanied by a then-logical fear of premature burial. She of course tells no one but a french doctor who soon falls victim to the plague.

Predictably the woman faints, everyone thinks she's dead, she wakes up in a coffin, goes nuts and takes a knife to the superstitious women who got Pherides worked, then Pherides himself.

This movie was great on so many levels. I'll try to cover them quickly.
First, Karloff as a hardened general (who sends on of his own friends off to be executed for negligence!), excellent casting there. Second, the whole science v. superstition debate is alive and well in this movie, and in the end, septicemic plague wins the blame. It was a little depressing, however, to see the archaeologist character opting for prayer to Hermes over medical observation to deal with the plague.

Rating: This movie gets a solid 5/5 Bonedaddies for playing out like a horror flick and the monster turning out to be disease and human reactions to it.