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 | Extreme Violence | Undead | Tongue

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:

Bruce Campbell's voice can be heard dubbed for the characters Raimi and Commander Carpenter.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Something to Scream About (2003) (V)

Soundtrack:

Out On The Road

The Dud Next Door.......

With a voice dub from the always awesome Bruce Campbell, oodles of "cult classic" comments/reviews, and a DVD release from Anchor Bay, you'd be led to believe this is truly a lost gem resurfaced. Wrong, wrong, WRONG.

Give a 18-ish man-boy (J.R. Bookwalter) two weeks worth of grocery money and let him indulge his crippled "genius" through a Super-8, and this is what you get. Every minute of this movie is saturated in ineptitude. The plot is unimaginative to the extreme, the gore is laughable, the acting is beyond HORRIBLE, and the original actors voices have been clumsily dubbed back in (why???) complete with loads of woodenness.

Looking for something more specific? How about that most of the characters in this movie have names like Raimi, Carpenter, Savini, etc., and get this- The zombie loving cult leader's name is Rev. Jones. Wow, how original; must have taken weeks to come up with that one. The "sets" are a real joy to behold too. Double-wides, abandoned houses, and a high school serve oh-so-realistically as hi-tech labs, government offices and a cult headquarters. Get the idea?

"TDND" isn't low-budget- It's NO-budget and worthless in every aspect. Bookwalter is still at it today, nearly twenty years later, and is just as talent deprived (ie- Ozone) as he was when this piece of trash first came out. Surprise, surprise.

(The 1 star- It's for Campbell.)