The Dead Next Door - It's bad (but I liked it!)

There are many great zombie movies around these days. 'The Dead Next Door' will never be one of them.  And that's a shame, because if films were rated on the effort and love put into them, I think this one would get a 10/10.

The dead have risen.  Society has fallen.  Now a few humans... Yeah, you've heard it all before.  Why should you bother with this one?  Well, you probably shouldn't.  Zombie movies were done better before (the George A Romero trilogy prior to this one's release in 1989) and after it with more recent films like '28 Days Later' and TV shows such as the early seasons of 'The Walking Dead.'

'The Dead Next Door' is extremely cheap.  And I don't just mean the special effects look like what you'd probably see on a made-for-TV B-movie.  This movie has all the hallmarks of a student's final film studies production.  The film stock used seems to be grainy, the actors are about as good as the local janitor, the characters are so dumb they make your average blonde bimbo in a slasher film look intelligent and the dialogue appears to have been dubbed on in post production.  So why do I own a copy of this carcrash?

Maybe because it's just so bad it's good?  Not just that.  The was a distinct 'drought' of zombie films after 'Day of the Dead' (1986) and 'The Dead Next Door' kind of filled that void in the early nineties until 'Resident Evil' kind of single-handedly reignited the genre.  Plus the idea behind 'The Dead Next Door' is pretty reasonable.  It deals with people's reaction to losing their loved ones and, although it does borrow a few of the more minor themes from greater zombie films, it does its best to expand on them and try something different.

So, I enjoyed it and watch it from time to time.  However, it's definitely an 'acquired taste.' I wouldn't really recommend it to everyone, unless you're incredibly forgiving when it comes to your films and don't mind the cheapness and bad acting contained here.  Although, to be fair, the gore is pretty good and the zombie make-up is as good as any in a Romero movie!

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that