The Dead Next Door (1989)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

J.R. Bookwalter

Writer:

J.R. Bookwalter (writer)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

How do you kill something that won't die? Where do you run when they're everywhere?

Plot:

The government sets up a Zombie squad after an epidemic has made the world run rampant with living corpses...

Plot Keywords:

Zombie | Virus | White House | Akron Ohio | Blood

Cast

Pete Ferry	...	Raimi (as Peter Ferry)
Bogdan Pecic	...	Dr. Moulsson (as Bogdan 'Don' Pecic)
Michael Grossi	...	Mercer
Jolie Jackunas	...	Kuller
Robert Kokai	...	Rev. Jones
Floyd Ewing Jr.	...	Capt. Kline
Roger Graham	...	Dr. Franklin
Maria Markovic	...	Anna
Jon Killough	...	Vincent / farmhouse zombie
Scott Spiegel	...	Richards
Jeff Welch	...	Cmdr. Carpenter
Michael Todd	...	Jason / Van driver
J.R. Bookwalter	...	Lloyds
Jennifer Mullen	...	Powers
Joe Wedlake	...	Dr. Savini

Runtime:

84 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Germany:(Banned) (2002) | UK:18 | USA:Unrated | West Germany:18 | Spain:18 | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

Akron, Ohio, USA

Company:

Amsco Studios

Trivia:

The movie that Randalls and the others are watching, that he says Raimi can improve his zombie hunting skills with, is The Evil Dead (1981).

Movie Connections:

Featured in Mysterious Skin (2004)

Soundtrack:

Death & Violence

Pathetic

Back in the early to mid 1980s, word spread around horror fandom that an enterprising young filmmaker was putting together a low budget but ambitious zombie film in Ohio. Monetary setbacks kept the film from being completed for years but it finally saw the light of day on video late in the decade. The film that many thought would be another cult masterpeice like Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Basket Case turned out to be a truly pathetic time waster that proves that anyone, no matter how untalented can make a movie and waste the veiwer's time. Yes, the film is quite ambitious but that means nothing if the filmmaker has no talent and Bookwalter has no talent in spades. The film seems to be a case of two ideas getting mashed together, the zombie plague and the Guyana like cult. But neither idea is very well meshed into the other and the result proved not to be worth the wait. Watch it for it's decent makeup effects. That's all that can really be praised. JR Bookwalter was once thought of as a great white hope who might put some gusto back into low budget genre films. How wrong we were.