Okay, here's a beef I have with the horror community. If you made a movie before 1990 for $20,000 and hired your friends to be in it, you were breaking ground. If you did it in say, 2001, you've automatically made "one of the worst movies I've ever watched. It had no plot and moved slower than a turtle. Pick something else, you'll be glad you did" (actual Netflix review). Come the fuck on. Even Coffin Joe has fans.
Vengeance of the Dead is a solid ghost story with decent acting and a compelling storyline that makes sense. It's got some soapy naked boobs, a great shotgun blast to the face, creepy dream sequences, a guy performing incredibly violent acts while sleepwalking/possessed, and a double twist at the end that works. Matthew Jason Walsh's score hit and tensed in all the right places. Michael Galvin provided some nice eye candy as the confused leading man Eric; if I was a ghost I'd fall in love too. Also starring Mark Vollmers as Grandpa, Susan Karsnick as Juila, Ashley Bodart as little Juila and June Gracious as Julia's pissed off ghost of a mother.
Oh, and I'm not sure if it was done on video, but it doesn't look like it was, which is crucial for my maximum enjoyment. I guarantee you that if I made a trailer for this, added some film grain and cigarette burns and said it was a rare overlooked classic from '81, people would be blowing up Google looking for it.
For some reason there is very little love for the modern budget film unless it's the hipster love for stuff that they don't actually like such as handlebar mustaches and popped collars. It's just like all my friends who will listen to 80s pop all day but won't turn on a station that plays Beyonce. If they had been adults in the 80s they'd probably have hated Prince. Just because something is old doesn't give it cred. I thoroughly enjoyed V of the D and look forward to seeing out more pictures from writers/directors Don Adams and Harry James Picardi.
