The Dead One (2007)

Director:

Brian Cox

Writers (WGA):

Brian Cox (written by)
Javier Hernandez (comic book "El Muerto")

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

He's Dead. He Lives...In America.

Plot:

A young man is killed and resurrected by the Aztec God of Death as his slave.

Plot Keywords:

Aztec | Human Sacrifice | Rebirth | Character Name In Title

US TV Schedule:

Tue. Nov. 24

10:30 AM

SHOW

Cast

Wilmer Valderrama	...	Diego de la Muerte / El Muerto
Angie Cepeda	...	Maria
Joel Moore	...	Zak
Michael Parks	...	Sheriff Ezra Stone
Tony Plana	...	Aparicio
E.J. Callahan	...	The Monsignor
Tony Amendola	...	Padre Somera
Alfonso Arau	...	Tezcatlipoca (voice)
Billy Drago	...	The Old Indian
Maria Conchita Alonso	...	Sister Rosa
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Darien Dikeos	...	Young Diego
Aldo Gonzalez	...	Cameo
D. Taylor Loeb	...	Celia
Vince Lozano	...	Coyote
Michele Marsh	...	Co-Worker
Brandon Molale	...	State Trooper
Nathan Mussell	...	Mictlantecuhtli
Araceli Najar	...	Latina
Emilio Rivera	...	Coyote
Saro Solis	...	2nd Deputy
Peter Mark Vasquez
Steve Wilcox	...	Deputy

Also Known As:

El muerto (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violence and disturbing images.

Runtime:

Greece:90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:PG-13 | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Península Films

Trivia:

Based on the "El Muerto, The Aztec Zombie" comic series written and drawn by Javier Hernandez and published by Los Comex.

It's Bland But Not Altogether Bad

People have been trashing this film, so instead of doing a standard review I'm just going to write a brief defense of this film. Was it incredibly awesome? No. I mean, it didn't have a lot of action or gore or beautiful women or anything that would normally make a horror film decent, but I don't think this was intended as a horror film.

Wilmer Valderrama ("That 70s Show") leads this film and does a fine job. I was never excited with him from TV, playing the part of either a naive foreigner or a trash-talking hoodlum. But here, he plays it pretty straight, just being one of the guys who happens to have a very bad thing happen to him (at least, I consider it bad if some Aztec god wants you to kill your girlfriend). There's a little bit of Mexican stereotype in here, but nothing blatantly racist.

The opening credits had scenes from what I assume is the comic book, or a close approximation. I have never read it, sadly (and in fact never even heard of it until now). Sometimes animation works, sometimes it doesn't ("Hood of Horror"). I liked it here, it seemed very natural -- even better than "Creepshow" in this regard.

I think the biggest problem people have with this film is the focus on a story rather than action and the overtly Mexican tones to the story, which few can identify with. I didn't really have an issue with it. With such notable guest stars as Billy Drago, it was easy to be entertained by this film. Oh well, you can't please everybody.

Now, I'm not suggesting you run out and rent this one right away. It's still not an exciting film. It's bland and little happens. So it doesn't deserve a high rating. But it does deserve better than what some people have been giving it, simply because I can point you to many, many worse films than this if you really want to know what awful is. "The Dead One" is a forgettable film, forgettable because it's neither too good or too bad to be noteworthy. It's the Goldilocks of Mexican super hero films.