Dead Season DVD Movie Review

Much like the creatures it eternally embraces, it seems the zombie genre will never, ever die. Nor will it evolve, change, or grow. The box art of Dead Season tells you much of what you'll need to know about the contents within: Shambling, menacing undeads in a tropical setting. There are plucky mortals fighting for their lives too, but they're relegated to the back cover.

Elvis (Scott Peat) and Tweeter (Marissa Merrill) are among a handful of hardy survivors following a worldwide viral outbreak which has left those less-fortunate either dead, or… worse. Shudder. (Yawn.) But there is hope! A fabled sanctuary on a lush, remote island where the buffalo roam and the antelope play. Or something like that. Maybe the streets are paved with gold. Or perhaps each lane is lined in candy cane. Bottom line is, it's Destination: Survival and Elvis and Tweeter are determined to get there.

Little do they know, George A. Romero already got there, like, a million years ago (okay, back in 1985) with Day of the Dead. We've got the tropical island, the nuclear family, military unintelligence, doctors doing diabolical deeds, an enclosed zombie compound, and of course, the obligatory head-shots oozing gore galore.

This is not to say Dead Season has absolutely nothing to offer. It just doesn't have anything new or better to offer. But if you like non-comedic zombie movies, and you're interested in earnest indies, then you could do worse. The acting was fair enough, the main characters were reasonably well-written and thought out, and the practical effects and horror makeups are better than even your standard SyFy original. Some of it is nonsensical (yeah, occasionally I seek sense in my supernatural horror films), especially the bit in which the slow, shambling, mindless zombies suddenly become super-speedy killing packs of power.

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson