The Video Dead is an amusing horror-comedy with better-than-average special effects and lower-than-average acting, though incidentals like that don’t matter when your movie is as charming as this. In it, a couple of latchkey kids move into their new house, days ahead of their parents who are currently living abroad. The boy gets the hots for the neighborhood blonde while the sister doesn’t do much of anything until the final act of the movie, at which point it’s suddenly revealed she’s our main character.
What the kids don’t know is there’s an evil television in the attic that’s capable of summoning the zombies from a generic horror movie. A Texas rancher arrives on their doorstep one day, having tracked the television set to their location. It turns out he’s the previous owner of the TV, which conjured the zombies that killed his wife. He warns the boy that he should place the television in the basement with the reflective side of a mirror strapped against its screen. Isn’t that a fun bit of world-building?
The DIY special effects are the biggest reason to watch this movie. What they lack in budget they make up for in design: every one of the zombies is distinct from the others. Taking a cue from the rambunctiousness of Gremlins, the zombies playfully enter their victims’ houses to try on wigs, glasses, hats, etc. Whenever one has her head sawn off, she picks it up and carries on without missing a beat. Another zombie has a clothes iron permanently lodged in his skull. This is the same rule cartoonists employ in their character designs: make sure the silhouettes are instantly recognizable and the audience will never confuse them with one another.
Also fun is the Texan’s expository dialogue, which conveys the mythological rules of the video dead: they don’t like mirrors, they only attack those who show fear, and burial doesn’t keep them down. Instead, one must dismember the Video Dead and leave the remains where they lie, letting nature reclaim them over time. Otherwise, they’ll just keep getting right back up and attacking over and over again. And instead of fortifying their home with garlic and crucifixes, the characters hang shards of mirror they can find on the front door.
The Video Dead has a “have camera, make movie” attitude. While it’s only slightly more than satisfactory, nothing in it is egregious or particularly insulting. It’s a pleasant watch for cult movie aficionados. I love that it exists. I’ll watch it again someday.
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