THE DEAD TIMES

RATING:

ZOMBIE RATING:

DESCRIPTION:

In New York, a woman sees a cataclysmic vision of a Priest committing suicide in the strange and mysterious town of Dunwich (H. P. Lovecraft fans rejoice). At first, it's not clear what the vision means but, after strange things start happening in both New York and Dunwich, it's clear that something very bad has been set in motion. A news reporter and the psychic who saw the vision rush to Dunwich - a town not even deserving of a place on the map - in order to right the wrongs and stop the half-dead Priest before he can open the gates of Hell, allowing the vengeful dead to walk among the living.

MY VERDICT:

This Italian Zombie film makes it into the 'Zombie movie' genre, but only just. You see, the so-called Zombies are not what I would consider flesh-munching walking cadavers at all - they are more like ghosts for the majority of the movie; you see them, standing and looking creepy, and then they just vanish - leaving no trace of their existence. Still, the title of the movie invokes mental images of hordes of uncountable size so the odd nature of the dead, you would expect, could be forgiven. Sadly though, this perceived awesomeness is a complete fallacy as there are only about five of the "living dead" until the concluding few minutes of the film. This is probably due to the clearly obvious fact that the film was shot on a tight budget; most of the 'gory bits' being off-screen or only referenced in dialog. The story seems a bit confusing and haphazard too - it seems to jump from the unknown vision to 'we must kill the Priest before he opens the gates of Hell completely' very quickly. There are a handful unanswered questions left after the credits roll such as; is the Priest dead or undead, did he actually open the gates of Hell since the heroes apparently got to his grave site after the deadline, why does stabbing the Priest in the crotch with a conveniently placed wooden crucifix finally end his reign of terror, why does the woman who saw the vision scream at the end when the innocent child is running towards her after the unholy Priest has been vanquished? It should be obvious by now that I do not like this film one bit, and, since I cannot think of even one good point about it, I would definitely avoid this lacklustre product.