Special Dead Review
Written by: gutterjim
Are you thinking about picking up Special Dead on DVD? Well DO IT! Special Dead takes place at Camp Special Dude, a ranch for the mentally handicapped. When a few new campers arrive at Special Dude, so do the undead! The campers and counselors have to fight to stop the outbreak and stay alive. As it says on Special Dead's imdb plot summary: "It's a campy stampede of blood, boobs and gore as some "very special" people show that they can kick some serious undead ass."
With that said let me get to reviewing this Zomedy! There is a really sharp picture during all of the daytime shots in the movie. Yet nights falls fairly early on in the film and most of the story takes place during the night. The picture is a bit grainy in the darker/nightime scenes but that just helps to set a creepy atmosphere. After a second viewing of Special Dead at a friends house on a huge HDTV I can say that the quality of the picture really stands out.
The make up effects for the gore and undead was pretty damn good, it's just gross enough for you to want to attack these zombies with a bar of soap and a hose. A few of the zombies reminded me of the look of Fulci's zombies in Zombi 2, Rotting and nasty looking!
The gore mixed with the humor very well. One nasty scene has a camp member joking about how stupid zombies are because he got bit by one, he then shows off his arm with an open gash and bubbling green blood inside, AWESOME. Another gore filled scene had me wondering why has quick set glue poured into a zombie's mouth never been used in a living dead story before? It seems like a logical way to stop a zombie from being able to bite you.
The sounds effects were spot on, A zombie gurgling with a mouth full of blood while it's face is getting smashed in, One of the counselors getting his face beaten against a tree while urinating, nasty flesh munching, and plenty of slashing, chainsaws and loud gunfire all sounded awesome. The soundtrack was just alright. A few rap songs felt out of place but then again im not a huge fan of hip hop. All the other music styles worked great with what was going on during the film. The metal tracks really pick up the pace and give energy to the zombie asskicking that going on. If there was a soundtrack available I'd would recommend picking it up also for the Andy Allen songs, his character dies off kinda early in the story which is ashame since he's a great guitar player and has some really funny songs.
All of the characters are unique and the acting felt genuene from everyone. The actors playing the "special" kids at camp Special Dude don't come off as wanting to make fun of the mentally disabled, their characters just have fun making fun of each other. Random comments and jokes from the "special" kids are hularious! "Pancake sized nipples" came out of no where and had me rolling on the floor. Is it wrong to laugh at how a mentally challenged person might normally act?
Everything in Special Dead was pretty faithful to zombie-lore except one scene where the leader, Mac, has the ability to stop the attack of a female zombie by simple giving her a kiss. That one threw me off a little but besides that I recommend this DVD to everyone that loves Shaun of the Dead, Fulci's Zombi 2, Dawn of the Dead, and The Ringer. Long live the Zomedy!