Kill your television

"You may never look at your television the same way again." This little looooow budget film was released in 1987 and was written, produced and directed by Robert Scott who directed only one other film called Ratdog. The rest of his career consisted of mainly working as unit director or assistant director on various projects. The Video Dead is basically a zombie film shot on video with a micro budget. The story goes a family receives a television that was supposed to be delivered to the Institute for The Studies of the Occult, so they accept it not knowing it is a TV from hell that is used as a portal for the undead to make there way back to the land of the living.
When the new owners ( the Blair Family)of the old abandoned home move in everything seems to be Ok, until the son Jeff discovers the demonic TV set in the basement quickly finding out that zombies are escaping from it. When Jeff finds out how to send the undead back to hell, since the parents are away in Saudi Arabia, it is up to Jeff and his sister Zoe (Roxana Augesen) to stop the blood bath becoming a battle of kids against zombies in suburbia.

Even with it's budget constraints, it does have a certain charm about it. The few zombies that are in the film look pretty decent, the best being the bride zombie who pops out of a washing machine for one kill scene. The zombies are not your typical zombies though, they laugh and hate seeing their reflections.

In one scene Jennifer Miro of the punk band The Nuns even appears on the TV and makes her way out of it. When she is sucked back in Jeff gets a warning from an odd looking man who goes by the name Garbageman, telling him of the grave danger they are in and what the TV's true intentions are. Soon Jeff comes up with some ideas on how to kill off the ever increasing zombies, one being to lock them in a small room making them go crazy and eat themselves. Another is to convince them that they are dead, because these zombies apparently hate being dead. In his third plan (this kid sure has a lot of theories) he proposes they try not acting scared around the zombies.

Currently there is no DVD release of The Video Dead.

For what it is and what it cost to make this is actually a fun little zombie film. It may be no Day of the dead or Return of the living dead but it is pretty original and has some really creepy moments. The cover is some amazing 80's art that jumps off the shelf and screams "rent me!", the kind you just don't see anymore. Recommended for it's low budget campyness.

Rating: C
Reviewed by Jason