The Dead Matter

source: The Dead Matter

So here we go on the dead matter. I bought this film 📼 from a charity shop for two pounds so money well spent. Spoiler coming up, Andrew divoff good actor so I don't know why the producer made him wear a long platinum wig. Did not need it just a minor criticism from me, but the actors done a good job of keeping the film rolling along. So I gave the film 📼 a biffin good seven stars jacey out.

What we have in this film is a seance, a book of grimoires, an ancient amulet, zombies, vampires and a vampire hunter that creates a really fun independent film that is sometimes humorous and other times creepy. Let's not forget that Tom Savini is in this film AND the movie has some of the very best Gothic music on film you will ever hear by Midnight Syndicate. If you don't take the film seriously, and just lighten up to kick back to an hour and a half of fun entertainment then you might really enjoy this movie. I really don't believe the film deserves this low of a rating it's getting. I obtained this film in DVD format and it came with Midnight Syndicate's soundtrack for this movie plus it has their Halloween Collection CD! I would highly recommend the The Dead Matter: 3-Disc Deluxe Edition if you are wanting this film in your personal collection. 6/10

THE DEAD MATTER is a thoroughly embarrassing Z-grade B-movie about vampires, featuring a local American town menaced by the undead. It makes Charles Band's SUBSPECIES series look like a masterwork of modern cinema by comparison, and from the first scene in which a cameoing Andrew Divoff sports an awful long blonde wig you just know it's going to be total trash. And so it proves. This is an attempted mix of exploitation values but generally it appeals to the lowest common denominator. The acting is trashy, the script stupid, the direction non-existent. Tom Savini shows up to give a typically hammy performance but you actually feel sorry to see him mired in this mess of a movie. A bit of sexual content and zero horror is all this has to offer.

Oh. My. God. I watched this movie for two reasons...Jason Carter and Andrew Divoff. What a pathetic and ghastly waste of their talents. Whoever put Andrew Divoff in this role, should give up filmmaking. Andrew Divoff is a lovely person (I've met him) and to see him so disrespected in such a silly role, with a cheap, doll looking wig, was disgusting. Jason Carter is endearing in any role, and Tom Savini seemed to be in his element, but what an appallingly disgusting waste of time and money...my time in watching it and the money blown that they'd have just been better off flushing down the toilet. I've seen child actors perform better than the lead actress. I'm not sure if she just couldn't​ act, or had taken far too much Valium before her performance, but...dang. If this is Midnight Syndicate's idea of making a movie, and this is what they consider an attempt at one, they need to just stick to music. Not even their music can save this absolute abomination. Avoid...by all means...avoid at all costs.

It's sad when the only good ratings a movie can get are from the filmmaker's family and friends. Well, here's the dead matter in a nutshell: The vampire (Andrew Divoff) wears a blonde lady's wig that looks like it's on backwards. The storyline is… oh wait, there is no story. The overweight zombies look worse than what you'd expect to see at a local haunted house run by high school kids. The music just drones on, but maybe it's better than nothing. The movie is described as a campy horror comedy, but there's nothing humorous at all about this film, except maybe the terrible acting. No *, very little blood and no interesting death scenes, nothing you haven't seen a million times already, and no hot chicks, just a few frumpy fat dudes. The actress that plays Gretchen is cute, but not in a "hot" way. And like I said, no *. I can't even recommend this train wreck for a beer and B-movie night. It's just a huge waste of time.

A group of teenagers perform a séance in the woods only to unleash a less than benevolent spirit into the world, or was it a dream? People like to have dreams in this movie. Anyway, the man bad guy, a vampire, wants to get an amulet that controls the dead from a member of said aforementioned teens who wants to make her dead brother return to life. I found this movie to be very boring and a tad reminiscent of the overall better "Warlock" Unsurprisingly the seemingly always typecast Andrew Divoff does nothing to dissuade those notions. Having seen it on Instant Redbox, and not going out of my way to view this movie, I still felt ripped off.

When I found out about this movie, my interest was peaked and I was thrilled to find out about what Midnight Syndicate would muster to put into this movie. And now having seen it, it is with a heavy heart that I must say that in my opinion, then Midnight Syndicate should stick to what they do so well, and that is making music - not movies! This movie was bad, plagued by a shallow storyline, unenthusiastic acting performances and generally a lack of appeal. I am sure that Midnight Syndicate meant well and tried their best, but the end result was just not that impressive. And more so, it was just downright tacky the way they were self-promoting themselves throughout the movie; such as the ring-tone on a phone was a classic Midnight Syndicate tune, and the mentioning of the band when someone was looking at vinyl albums. It was just too sleazy the way they were subtly trying to promote themselves through the means of the storyline. The story was mediocre at best, though it was heavy with stereotypical things, and it didn't really work out all that great. If they had stuck to just one type of classic horror creatures instead of two, it would have worked out much better. Either go with zombies or vampires, both of them together just doesn't really work out all that great. And what was up with the horrible fake wig plastered to Andrew Divoff's head? It looked God-awful, and I was laughing most of the time when he was on the screen because of it. So it was hard to take this movie seriously. And it was far from anywhere near the usual performances that Andrew Divoff delivers in movies. It was cool to see Tom Savini in the movie, though, and that much credit is due to the movie. "The Dead Matter" is a shallow movie experience that is thick with self-promoting from Midnight Syndicate. And for a horror movie, then it turned out to be as far as it could be from being a horror movie. It sort of resembled a parody of horror at best. The one thing, and the best thing, that the movie had working for it, was - without any surprise - the music score / soundtrack. As always with Midnight Syndicate, you get some really great atmospheric and ambient music that emphasizes on the horror and occult aspect.

I could barely sit through the mandatory 30 Minutestes of this drivel, but still I have to give it high marks. First star goes to the fact that the movie is called DEAD MATTER and it opens with a town under siege by well made up zombies. In the middle of the Zombie Apacolypse are two Sabre Wielding Zombie Slayers. The Sabre wielding Zombie Slayers turn into Wooden Stake impaling Vampire hunters as they are in pursuit of a magic Amulete. Although one vampire over-lord has a cheap wig and horrible fangs, the actor who plays him already has a couple of Horror movie franchise under his belt already. He kills humans turning them into Zombies, technically ghouls to do his bidding. the other vampire overlord a veteran of the remake of Night of the living dead (which explains why the Zombies were so well done) drugs his fellow vamps to do his bidding. However the actress playing the women in distress is so horrible she brings the movie down.

Andrew Divoff stars as Vellich, he has to have that relic and will do anything to get it. Watching this film, I realized how much I missed him in the Wishmaster films. He truly makes this film a blast to watch. If you take away the vampire and zombie parts, this felt like Wishmaster 3 should have felt. This is true indie movie gold. What a fun film from start to finish, this film is just a treat to the genre. You get the bad wig worn by Divoff which made him look like a 70′s stoner with a weird touch of Col Sanders. You have Tom Savini, who plays Sebed, a vampire lord that really gives Divoff some of his best moments in this film. To watch those two icons act with each other is almost the equivalent of watching Robert Plant sing with Paul McCartney. There is a scene in the film where Gretchen opens the fridge and the food becomes reanimated. To watch the chicken act the way it did, was such a nod to Evil Dead, without feeling like it ripped it off. You also get a beer drinking zombie, hey zombies get thirsty also you know. The special effects were done by Robert Kurtzman, who a few of you may have heard of once or twice maybe? And get this, you get a Jessica Cameron cameo. Some of you guys may have heard that name before as well. This is old school horror meets new school ideology with a twist. The script was fun, it was dark humor and it was smartly written. The characters felt fresh, as did the situations. And the nod to Fulci The Beyond. Kudos for having the guts to attempt it, and not only that, but succeeding where you know Fulci is in his grave clapping the effort. If you are going to rent this to be scared, you may be watching the wrong film. This film is not a scary horror film, it is a fun one. And such a breath of fresh air, that all horror movies can still be effective but yet has heart and humor. This film gives you a fair amount of gore and blood goodness. This is clearly a nod to us old school fans, and it is such a fresh breath of air in the lungs of people who suffer thru so much junk to get to good films like this. This is a must watch, and will enjoy film. The extras on the DVD are very amazingly fun. There are two Midnight Syndicate music videos, three finalists' music videos from the Midnight Syndicate 13th Anniversary video contest, gag reels, audio commentary by Ed Douglas, Robert Kurtzman, and Gary Jones, a feature called Maximum Dead Matter that allows you to watch a scene in one corner of the screen while simultaneously watching the actual filming of the scene in another window, interviews with cast and crew members, locations, and concept art. Also included in this triple disc combo is 2 soundtracks. All in all, this is so much fang for your buck