Shatter Dead

I'm not surprised that this film has gotten so many bad reviews, although this is not to say I agree with them. I contend that Shatter Dead, although obviously not professional looking, is a brilliant film.

Yes, it was shot on a low budget. Yes, it was shot on video and not film. Yes, the sound is low quality. NO, THESE THINGS DO NOT MATTER.

What matters is that there's (a) a very creative take on the zombie genre, (b) a script with tremendous depth that works on multiple levels, (c) many clever lines (that also work on multiple levels), (d) many powerful scenes, (e) a profoundly haunting mood that permeates the entire film, (f) a fantastic musical score, (g) a sharp and dynamic visual style that defies the low budget, (h) well-developed, memorable characters, and (i) efficient storytelling.

If you need your films to have bright colors and celebrities and pop music, then you will not like Shatter Dead. But if you're looking for something that's actually innovative and meaningful, then perhaps you should give it a try.

Hmmm. Where to start with this one. I just watched this flick for the first time last night and it left me a little uneasy. I am not sure if I am upset at myself for paying so much for a camcorder shot looooooooooooooooooooow budget flick, or if the movie actually had an effect on me.........I am still pondering that one.

For those who love extreme gore, action, and excitement.....this movie will probably not suit your fancy. I would not even call this movie a horror movie. There was nothing scary about it, nothing shocking (except for the gun up the muff scene)...I have seen it all before. I would consider this movie a dark comedy, even though I am sure Scooter did not intend for it to be funny. I mean the really bad acting and dialogue just has to be laughed at, especially Stark Raven and the Preacher Man. Some of the dialougue is just hilarious, like "don't be scared, I am scared." You just have to laugh.

Stark Raven is about as talented and sexy as a slab of cardboard (she's as flat as one too). Her gratuitous sex scenes sort of nauseated me because she is not in the least bit attractive....for once a movie would have been better without the female lead getting naked. The only thing that "shattered" in this movie is the mirror everytime Stark Raven looked in it (God, those teeth..........).

The clever storyline and idea behind this movie are strongly overshadowed by the lousy acting, camera work, and dialogue, and get left behind and forgotten quickly.

I mean, any movie with a guy dressed up like Howard Stern as Fartman with a gun cannot be taken seriously.

Worth a rent but not a buy. Nuff said.

Even the director/producer calls it a "video" instead of a film in the credits, so maybe I should be careful before calling it a "film." But right there, we have an example of honesty that is a rarity among typically egomaniacal filmmakers, and this very terminology is an indication of the inner integrity this -- ahh, film -- possesses.

Now it's not that my fellow reviewers are totally off base. Yes, the plot is full of holes. Yes, the acting and production values aren't so wonderful at times. And, yes, the standard horror elements have been given a back seat. (And the latter was fine with me, because I believe a film has to be taken on its own merit; there are plenty of mindless zombie films out there, many of which tread the same tired ground, and can get pretty boring at times.) But what do you expect? The production has no budget. Given those limitations, one has instead to inspect whether the film has heart. And this is not a by-the-numbers production. I'm not sure I would normally recommend this film to anyone, frankly, but right there -- given its heart -- SHATTER DEAD deserves much credit.

Eyeing a couple of the external reviews, I see the film was "Winner of the Best U.S. Independent Feature Award at the Italian Fantafilm Festival in 1995." That says something, as I doubt the production team held the political sway of a Miramax at Sundance... this award must have been offered "purely." I also see Joe Bob Briggs says "check it out." Fine. These opinions, although more "official," need be no more valid than the one-vote giving ones here who have concluded "Crapper, Crapper," and (from zombie film fans) "Completely Absurd," as well as "Deeply disappointed." Yet, the former still serve as an indication that there is more to this movie, beneath the surface. (Officialdom = 1; Zombie Film Fans = 0.)

Indeed, the lead actress was not a glamourpuss, as could be said for the rest of the female performers. But the fact that her teeth were crooked and her chest was ungenerous only serve to provide a sad commentary of what our brainwashed movie-goers have come to expect. Frankly, I appreciated her form more than the dime-a-dozen plastic robo-hootered variety that permeate the B-movie kingdom. I liked the fact that she wore no make-up. These were touches that made her more "real," given the awful situation where we have been required to suspend our disbelief. And, yes, the delivery of her lines left something to be desired at times. Then again, she exuded a weight-of-the-world on her shoulders weariness that was most fitting for the depressing context. (She was actually quite lovely in the behind-the-scenes DVD extras, where the director gives a tour of his house.) Suspension of disbelief are the magic words for an enterprise such as this, and that goes beyond the fantastic plot. We have to accept the harsh realities of guerilla film-making, and excuse such matters as the ridiculous toy rifle strapped around her neck.

On the other hand, I appreciated what the film has achieved... for example, in the establishing sequence, the crew shot in a small town without permits, and managed to convey a desolate, "last man on earth" type of atmosphere... not an easy task, without a Hollywood machine to grease the wheels. Secondly, there were special effects that were quite well done, from exploding squibs to a man on fire; the make-up wasn't "that" horrible, either, contrary to what some of our more spoiled reviewers have claimed.

I could have done without some of the extreme "shock" scenes, but I guess that's the sort of thing that makes this kind of film more "fun." (One of the IMDb reviewers complained of "gynecological" hardcore close-ups during the "gun" intercourse scene; in the Sub-Rosa DVD I viewed, there were no such close-ups, so perhaps they were edited out.) The film didn't allow me to get bored (well, okay, maybe the scene with the preacher's rantings went on a bit long). Basically, I'm giving SHATTER DEAD a reluctant thumb's up, mainly for the richness of the ideas conveyed within; that's a lot more than we can expect from a cinematic excursion fully belonging in the trash heap.

After hearing much hype about this supposedly graphic yet thoughtful zombie movie I gave it a shot, much to my dismay.

Strait-jacking Romero's infamous 'Dawn of the Dead' line about there being no more room in hell for it's plot, 'Shatter Dead' follows the exploits of a rather unpleasant female as she attempts to get to her boyfriend in a world were the dead don't die. Along the way she meets assorted boring humans, a wack-job preacher, and some living dead just trying to get by.

The film tries for high-concept, but lays limp at low-execution. The locations look like spots near the director's home, the actors don't ever act, the script is thin past the set up, the gore FX aren't convincing, the direction is uninspired, etc, etc. Just nothing about it ever works. The film could have tried to rely upon the strength of the set-up to at least flirt with some existential examination, but instead the filmmakers fall back on dime-novel psycho-babble and pseudo-religious rhetoric.

As far as providing exploitive thrills, yet again the promise is not delivered. There is some violence and blood/gore, but it's cheaply executed and badly edited together. On the sexploitive front, things fare no better. While there is a fair amount of nudity, it is mostly of the lead female who (I am sorry to say) is not very attractive. For the whole movie only one bit, just one, actually stood out; a late movie sex scene where a blood drained zombie male is forced to strap on a hand-gun in order to engage in intercourse. That one blurb of exploitive lunacy accounts for the 2 rating.

Not much of a horror movie, not much of a sexploitive movie...just not much of a movie.

2/10

Having read of this film and its charms in such reputable genre magazines as "Rue Morgue" and "Fangoria" over the past eight years or so, I finally got around to viewing "Shatter Dead" in its newly released DVD format. That said, I find myself shaking my head (and just shaking in general) as to how anyone with an IQ higher than that of the most scholarly of algae could summon up anything positive to say about this terrible waste of time and money. While the premise of having the living dead trying to live amongst us is an intriguing one to this long-time viewer of hardcore porn, (Oops! Did I say hardcore porn? Sorry, I meant to say zombie movies.) there is nothing at all intriguing about watching a lousy student film (which is to say, a student film) shot directly to video, starring said student's film school chums running around backyards and stripmalls with the same blatantly latex makeup jobs as if they'd all consumed cases of Schlitz Malt Liquor with Vicatin chasers. Much more interesting would be a film about a pencil factory where the evil CEO falls into the grinding machine and his soul comes to inhabit millions of number two pencils the world over. Mankind, armed only with his own moxie and a few good pencil sharpeners, in the end are no match for this fiendish plot, and soon succumb to the heathen pleasures of permanent and non-permanent inks. I call it, "Get the Lead Out!", and while it may not exactly be coming to a theater near you anytime soon, when it does, you will find it a much more harrowing experience than say, "Shatter Dead", and you will believe (!!!), or, at the very least, you'll think twice before chomping on our bright yellow friends. As I close, I am reminded again of this kindergarden klownfest's declaration that "God Hates You!". Well, duhh! Tell me something I don't know! Of course God hates me. He told me to watch "Shatter Dead".