Dead Moon Rising (2007) 4/10

Dead Moon Rising is yet another low budget zombie flick in a long long line of low budget zombie flicks. This time however the director tried to do a sort of "indie storytelling" approach that tries so hard to work but rarely does.

The film is set in Louisville, Kentucky and as you might have guessed, zombies are taking over. This plot is so well worn is almost thread bare. What could any film maker do to possibly add to the already bloated zombie genre? Try to be funny I guess. Dead Moon Rising is filled with silly characters and one-liners. Its almost a screwball zombie flick if that makes any sense. The main character takes the audience aside several times to tell the back story of each character which works about half the time. The half that doesn't comes out just seems needlessly expository and the information useless. I appreciate the approach though and really that's the films only saving grace.

As stated previously the story is nothing new. The acting is passable but the directing is not. Most of the film takes place outside in direct sunlight and all the character's faces are shrouded in shadow, unintentionally so. The problem with this is that when a character delivers dialogue I like to see the person's damn face, not a shadow. This obvious amateur mistake is found time and time again throughout the film and becomes incredibly irritating. Let me see the face and the actions. I want to be engaged, not shut out by shadow. The action is cheesy and the film is unabashedly micro budget, which would be fine if the director had any skill whatsoever. But alas, he does not. The film would have worked better as a short story rather then a film given its "wordy" banter found throughout. Film is a visual medium. If I want a bunch of dialogue and expository side tracks, I'll read a book. If I'm watching a film, i want to see action and development.

Bottom line: the script is better then the film.

Gore - mild-medium

Overall - 4/10