Sombras da Morte

Released to TV in 2016, "Shadows of the Dead" starts with a group of teens going out to a cabin in the woods to party (no, seriously). Thankfully, that's just the beginning as some kind of deadly shadow-like creature follows them back to their Southern Cal town where havoc naturally ensues.

I like petite cutie Kennedy Tucker as the main protagonist and Thomas Miguel Ruff as her likable pal, Gabe. The rest of the cast is serviceable. The tone is serious, which is good in my book, and the haunting air makes this a good TV flick for the October/November season.

I also like the fact that the monster is explained better than the half-baked nonsense of similar movies, like "The Night before Halloween" (2016) and "Stickman" (2017). The shadow creature is reminiscent of the monsters from "Mothman" (2010) and "Scarecrow" (2013), both superior to this, while including elements of "Alien" (1979), "Messiah of Evil (1973) and "From Within" (2008).

Although "Shadows of the Dead" is better than "Neverknock" (2017), it suffers from a similar feeling of "Meh." Something needed added to perk the movie out of its prosaic goings-on. Some of it works, though, and I appreciated the positives despite my tedium. The climax is totally predictable though.

The movie runs 1 hour, 27 minutes and was shot in the more remote outskirts of Los Angeles.

GRADE: C/C+

Heading off to a special party, a group of friends inadvertently stumble upon a strange creature that possesses each other them in order to track down and kill them one-by-one and must find a way of exploiting it's weakness to light in order to stop it once and for all.

For the most part this one here wasn't all that bad. A lot of what makes this one so much fun is the fact that there's quite an impressive and enjoyable first half here that's quite enjoyable for how much impressive action is featured here. The opening attack on the farmer out in his cabin is quite shocking with his frantic actions not being in the slightest bit reasonable but still maintaining some nice suspense about the oncoming threat, a later scene where they encounter their friend in the middle of the woods and try to take her back only to get caught up in the car crash is quite chilling and the encounter in the hospital where the bodies rise up behind the unsuspecting victim before the final attack all make this one quite fun and really sell the channel's traditionally shorter attacks. Much like these, the longer ones infused into the film are quite a lot of fun and really move this one along as well from the encounter at her house where the creature emerges from the garage and chases her into the house only to reveal it's host was one of their group, a rather chilling sequence in the school gym where the lone friend is attempting to leave knowing there's something in there with them and the big finale at the school comes off as really enjoyable where it deals with the group reveal about the creatures' history and leading into the series of grotesque, morbid hallucinations about each one of them living out their own individual fears that's the perfect launching pad for a series of warped encounters with the different visions being full of quite nightmarish and truly chilling experiences that not only makes for a frenzied final half but mixes in some solid brawling, a couple of decent chase scenes that are quite chilling and features a spectacular finale at the football field that's quite ingenious and manages to work rather well here in delivering a solid finish to this one that gives it a lot of great points to like here. Along with the original concept of the creature and it's rather strong design, these here make for quite the overall impressive and enjoyable effort that has so much to like about this that it can hold itself up over its minor flaws here. The main issue here is the complete confusion over the origin of the main creature, who is said to be part of some strange curse of some kind yet nothing much else is given about this being and what it's about. There's nothing here beyond its aversion to light and the mark signaling its victim, and there's absolutely nothing about what the curse is supposed to be brought about or why the creature is stalking them and these are all a total mystery. As well, there's the utterly appalling and ridiculous CGI used for it's being that really makes for some quite laughable scenes of the monster roaming around the background which retains the same culprits usually found in such films. These are really the film's only real flaws.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Language.

When I found "Shadows of the Dead", I had initially believed it to be a zombie movie cashing in on the success of Romero's numerous zombie movies. So given my fascination with the horror genre and all things zombie, I sat down to watch "Shadows of the Dead".

First of all, it didn't turn out to be a zombie movie, which I had believed it to be. But what it turned out to be, wasn't a bad thing. However, it just happened to be a very mediocre and predictable movie.

This happened to be just another generic late-teen horror movie, and I must admit that it is getting somewhat of a cliché with a group of young people out in the wilderness late at night and having something sinister chase them.

The special effects in the movie were just not overly believable or particularly impressive. And that sort of worked against the movie, especially so since a horror movie usually needs proper special effects.

As for the acting in "Shadows of the Dead", well it was as to be expected from a late-teen horror movie.

Granted that this is a SyFy movie, and that usually means that you are in for something questionable nine out of ten times, and "Shadows of the Dead" didn't stand out from the usual stuff that SyFy mass produce.

All in all, a less than mediocre horror movie, and my rating of it ends on a 4 out of 10 stars.