A small squad of soldiers, led by Lieutenant Robert Quinn (Dean Cain of TV’s Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman), are deployed to a remote medical relief center in the jungles of Cambodia. When they arrive at the facility, they find all the occupants are either dead or missing. Suddenly, one of the soldiers gets attacked by a couple of blood-thirsty zombies. Just as they kill off the ravenous assailants, a survivor appears and decides to drop a grenade because he doesn’t want to become “one of them”. BOOM!
All of the soldiers are apparently killed until Lieutenant Quinn wakes up on a slab just before he is about to be autopsied. The army coroner, amazed and confused, tells him he arrived last night, D.O.A. The doctor takes his vital statistics and finds that he has none. For all practical purposes, Lieutenant Quinn is dead.
By extracting a scorpion from his arm (the cause of the zombie infection), Lieutenant Quinn avoids becoming an out-of-control flesh eating ghoul, and retains most of his human faculties (with the periodic craving for red meat). He also acquires supernatural strength, smell, hearing, and a “Wolverine” like healing ability, as a result of his condition. With his newfound powers, and with the help of a couple stereotypical sidekicks, a wise-cracking black cook named “Hieronymous Judson” (Guy Torry) and a beautiful, but street-smart bartender named “Holly” (Susan Ward), Quinn embarks on a mission to eradicate all remnants of the zombie plague. (Think of a zombie equivalent of Blade).
Dead and Deader was obviously not intended to be taken too seriously, and is peppered with tongue-in-cheek humor throughout. The problem with this type of horror/comedy is that it is very difficult to pull off effectively. What is intended to be fun, clever, and entertaining, often ends up being moronic and asinine. While Dead and Deader has a couple amusing scenes and a few witty on-liners, they are lost in a sea of hokey dialogue, bad acting, and half-baked humor.
Perhaps the most redeeming quality of the film is the effective special makeup/splatter fx, which is to be expected from the boys at the Nicotero/Berger group. These days they are arguably the best in the business, and it shows in Dead and Deader with the realistic zombie makeup and a decent amount of blood, guts, and gore.
The mild entertainment level and good special makeup effects saves the movie from becoming a total bust, but not enough for me to recommend it. People who really like cheesy B-movies might consider giving this one a chance, but if you don’t typically like the horror/comedy sub-genre, you’re probably better off leaving this one alone.
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