The Deader The Better

A Review by Nick Peron

This is a short film by James Rolfe, who many readers recognize as the Angry Video Game Nerd. I had to say that, in watching James' videos, I knew this guy had some background in film and I was curious if he had anything else other than his comedic video game reviews. I wasn't disappointed with what I found.

If any of his work is any indication, his interested and inspiration is drawn by the many myriad things that inspire so many independent filmmakers out there, and with his short, the Deader the Better, he gives an interesting take on the tired zombie movie genre.

The short features two grave yard caretakers: Lloyd and Earl, who, for reasons that are unexplained happen to work in the only graveyard in the world where the dead like to pop back out of their graves and cause a nuisance. Lloyd usually employs more violent means of knocking down the zombies and putting them back to rest, much to the disapproval of Earl, who questions if Lloyd has any respect for the dead. Lloyd is over the opinion that it's just another job.

This movie is great in it's simplicity, focusing on just two characters and their relationship with one another, and leaving the mind-numbing plot devices such as "Why do the zombies rise from the dead?" alone. Really it's not an important component to the film because the zombies aren't the central focus.

It's got some great atmosphere and mood, filmed in black and white with only the color red coming out (obviously to make the blood a little more vibrant and life like than the old fashion Hitchcockian chocolate syrup technique.) James utilizes (what appears to be) music scores from old horror movies the likes of which you'd find at home in movies like Plan 9 From Outer Space, King of the Zombies, or The Brain that Wouldn't Die. Not only are these old musical scores used, but they're timed very nicely and match what's going on in the film, the synchronization is perfect.

And of course, we get down to the gore and special effects, which are low budget but you can see that they were executed with the care of somebody who is passionate about making a film. I've seen far too many zombie "epics" where the low budget effects are a hindrance to the quality of the film, The Deader the Better is not one of these films. It does utilize some digital editing (and I'm guessing some chroma-key effects) to do some of the decapitations, and a really cool animated scene of a skull bring crushed with a shovel (like an x-ray) oh and there's a priceless scene where Lloyd rips the head off a zombie and shoves the spine up it's ass. Very nice effect.

All in all, it's a great short, superbly put together and is damn entertaining. If you have a moment, you should totally head on over to the www.cinemassacre.com and check out this movie, which you can download for free right off the site! Also don't forget to check out our interview with James by clicking here!

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