The Dead Hate the Living is Charles Band’s version of a film crew making a horror movie that stumbles onto zombies. With a lot of Easter eggs to the great Lucio Fulci. So, a low budget horror movie that’s actually not too bad. 

Released: Feb 8, 2000

Runtime: 90 mins

Director: Dave Parker

Writer: Dave Parker, Paul Salamoff

Actors: Eric Clawson, Jamie Donahue, Brett Beardslee

MY THOUGHTS

There’s about five (living) kills and several zombie kills. Lots of blood and some gore. Plus a lot of practical effects within the movie they are making as well as in the real movie. There was one scene I wish was more brutal because Nina was a terrible person. But she did have her head twisted off. Since this is a zombie movie there are lots of zombies. Even some maggots! 

Acting was okay. Nobody really stood out (acting wise) to me negatively or positively. But, one of the zombies looked familiar so I looked it up and to my surprise it was Matthew McGrory! I also found out that it was his acting debut (even though he was a zombie). I did wish Shelly (Wendy Speake) lasted longer. Paul (Brett Beardslee) did a good job as the comedic sidekick role.

=================================================================

I wanted to take a quick break to let you know I found these great deals on Amazon for The Dead Hate the Living merchandise. I’ve applied to Amazon’s affiliate program and if I can get three purchases I will be accepted into the program. This will be of tremendous help with starting my small business.

=================================================================

At first I was irritated with some of the decisions the actors were making. Like, a dead body is put into a weird coffin thing, and when it’s opened he’s alive. Nobody really movies except the one guy who opens it who gets killed. Still, nobody really runs away. Come on. There were a couple of other nitpicks but they are explained away later that when they started the machine time changes and some other stuff. So that doesn’t bother me. Just the characters not running when they should have.

Overall, not a terrible movie. It passed the time and I don’t regret watching it. There’s some cool looking zombies and a twisted ending to keep things interesting.

And now for your Forever Final Girl Exclusive…Did you know?:

• According to the director on the DVD commentary, the maggots that get rubbed onto the face of Nina are real. However, they didn't tell her that. It was their way of getting back at her for not showing up for filming on the previous day, due to her booking a higher paying job on that day. This made them angry since the film was on a short 10-day shooting schedule.

• The hospital set at the beginning of the film is re-used from End of Days.

• Producer Charles Band has since gone on to say he didn't care for this film.

Check out my other reviews here: Forever Final Girl

Let’s get into the rankings:

Kills/Blood/Gore:   4/5

Sex/Nudity:   0/5

Scare factor:   2.5/5

Enjoyment factor:   5/5

My Rank:    2.87/5

IMDB: 4.3/10

Rotten Tomatoes: critics:  –/10  audience:  2.5/10

Letterboxd: 2.4/5