Deathdream

First , a few things to get out of the way, this is NOT a Zombie movie at all. I laughed at some of the reviews saying it's a zombie flick, It's not, it's more along the lines of a dramatic thriller mixed in with a supernatural twist (the undead part).

A typical vehicle of the 70's. The 70's and early 80's flicks took advantage of the attention of Vietnam to come up with these anti-war flicks (Soldiers coming home but never being the same, being either violent or suicidal and ultimately hurting themselves or others). Enter "Deathdream" which skims over into the crazed Vet coming home to kill phase.

Andy is allegedly killed in Vietnam. His family is devasted but Andy , however, is displaying psychotic, and violent tendecies as time goes on. He kills a truck driver, kills a dog, and then well I won't spoil.

A great acting job by Richard Backus as he shows us the detoriation of one kind man corrupted by war and violence into a crazed soldier. The performances all around are excellent but like I said, it's not a zombie movie. The only zombie twist is that the guy's dead but that can easily be put into the supernatural category. The ending is very predictable, but this is quite an entertaining descend into madness, and social. commentary by Bob Clark. I don't think he needed the zombie twist at all but perhaps thought it was necessary to sell the film. Speaking of which includes early makeup effects by Tom Savini.

Highly recommended.

I had read good reports about "Deathdream", but I didn't expect much from this film as the opening soldiers-in-action prologue passed into the credits, and then to a humble family meal, as the atmosphere was too reminiscent of countless low budget, mid 1970's movies that used to show up on TV all the time. But to my surprise the film turned out to be far more effective and well made than I expected.

The rather cheap wartime opening served to introduce that character of Andy, although it is not handled very well at all and the characters are hard to distinguish. Luckily it's not really necessary, as the first important scene is the one that follows, in which the family meal I mentioned above is interrupted by an army officer carrying a telegram...the house visitor that every parent dreads. This important scene is handled surprisingly well, as Andy's mother, father and sister react to the news that Andy won't be coming home again. Luckily, this effective scene is not a mere one off, but just the start of what turns out to be a gruesome and thought-provoking horror/drama. Soon after the tearful telegram scene, the family's grief turns to elation as to their surprise, Andy suddenly turns up in the middle of the night seemingly alive and well...but unfortunately, he's neither.

I think a lot of the power of the film comes from the fact that the acting is all so good. With no big star names, there is still no major weak link anywhere in the film, and everyone seems to behave naturally and believably. The script has been written remarkably realistically and all of the characters act and speak like real people, without having any silly horror movie conventions to wrangle with. In fact the whole screenplay reads like a dream, as the time between Andy's arrival and the suspicions of various people that something is wrong happen about as fast as would naturally be expected. Andy's very first night at home comes at the cost of the life of a truck driver who gives him a lift, and as soon as one of the first characters outside of the main family (the doctor) actually meets him, he immediately suspects that something is wrong and decides to go the police without any hesitation. This refreshing realism does not mean of course that Andy does not get to cause some serious havoc before the end of the movie, and the highlight of his brief rampage is the drive-in movie scene in which Andy's sudden fury and hideous appearance are genuinly shocking.

As I said, the film has a low budget feel which hampers it, but the performances of Andy's mother, father and sister are all very good, and really lift the film up a level. Even the smaller roles are good, right down to the bunch of kids that visit Andy in the family back yard, or the police officers and local doctor. A special mention should also go to the actress playing Andy's former girlfriend who's re-acquaintance with him is far from the happy event she must have dreamed of. Of course it is the performance of Richard Backus as Andy that has to carry the main weight, and he is extremely effective, as he is required to present a character who is subtly not quite right, but still believeable. He's also quite convincingly evil, and the scenes of him constantly rocking back and forth in that damned creaky chair made me wish someone would just punch him!

The story is based loosely on the age-old tale of "The Monkey's Paw", so you don't need reminding that there is no happy ending. A vague anti-war message seems to be in the background, but the general intention seems to be just to to portray the horror of what is happening to one very ordinary family. In this the film succeeds wonderfully. A genuine little gem, rewarding and memorable to watch.

This is, quite simply, a brilliant concept. By updating the basic storyline of THE MONKEY'S PAW to the Vietnam era screenwriter Alan Ormsby has crafted a surprisingly effective allegory about the war and it effects upon not only returning veterans but their families as well. While obviously shot on a low budget, this is not really a detriment to the film at all. The Special Effects (by Ormsby and a young Tom Savini) are pretty cool looking and Richard Backus is delightfully creepy as the vampire/zombie veteran. Considering the time in which it was made(the early 70's, when Vietnam was hardly ever mentioned in films at all) its amazing that this film ever got greenlighted in the first place. One could almost be tempted to say its a "message" film but with a blood-drinking vampire/zombie doing most of the heavy lifting, it never seems like one, until the sad, poetic and chilling ending sequence. Bravo to all involved. They just don't make intelligent little horror films like this anymore and its a shame.

This movie is great. It doesn't have any B-Horror boring spots. Check it out, there is definately some funny moments as in most B movies, but it actually has a pretty cool horror story to tell. Imagine the director did Christmas Story!

Ok...I can remember this movie back from when I was 13 years old watching Superhost. This movie was a "staple" in their movie list and they showed it often. I can still remember everything about this movie and I haven't seen it for 21 years- that is how frightening it was. This is your typical old style film where the ending drive-in scene was s l o w l y built up for a scary classic horror scene to remember! I'll never get Andy's face out of my mind when he comes up from the back seat.....ugh! I loved this movie.