Shadow Dead Riot Movie Review

I just recently got back from the Festival of Fear in Toronto and was lucky enough to catch this film. We were sitting in on the second screening of the film for an audience. Tony Todd came up front and gave his little pep talk and immediately left the room, bad sign.

The movie begins with Tony Todd sitting in a jail cell chanting some sort of demonic ressurection spell. After this he is brought to where he will be executed by lethal injection. Oddly enough it goes terribly wrong and he explodes. Yea, I thought it was pretty crazy too.

Flash forward 20 years and we meet his daughter (she doesn't know that she is his daughter despite the rather obvious hints throughout the movie) Solitare. Unfortunatley for the audience watching the movie that name gives her the oppurtunity to spit out some of the most awful one liners known to man.

During her stay at the now turned female prison which is also being used as a gene therapy unit she is subjected to many run ins with Mondo. A super human looking black chick with an attitude. As the movie progresses you see TONS of gratutious nudity and some awful fight scenes that I'm sure left Bruce Lee spinning in his grave.

Did I mention there are also zombies in the film? I believe another downfall of this movie was trying to incorporate so many different parts of the horror genre into one film. A demonic serial killer, zombies, womans prison, exploitation, deformed babies, and gene therapy. All that in one film is way too much.

The acting in this film was beyond deplorable. The lines these poor saps were forced to read are ridiculous. Some of it though was of course the delivery of the lines and the miscomunication with the looks on their faces. Several times this happened with the warden of the prison. Everytime she said something you were holding back laughter at the absurdity of it all. 

So why even give this movie a 6? I'm sure some of the other guys that saw this movie with me will ask the same question. Well I have to say despite it being one very bad film it does manage to get you laughing almost non stop throughout the entire movie. From the mutated baby to some of the wince inducing one liners that Tony Todd was forced to read.

If you still have the urge to check out this movie after reading this review definetly pick up some beers and about 5 buddies because this movie is only viewable with a crowd of drunken folks laughing at the ludacris scenes portrayed in the film.