Dead Meat Review

What with us giving away copies of these first releases from the UK's fantastic new Frightfest DVD imprint - seriously, these guys are doing amazing work on their releases - I figured we should take a look at their first two releases. Dead Meat is up today and the fantastic Malefique tomorrow.

To the best of my knowledge I had never seen an Irish horror film before catching Billy O’Brien’s Isolation at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival. A month later I have now seen two and, bizarrely, they both involve cattle. With Dead Meat writer-director Conor McMahon follows his award winning short Brain Eater with a debut feature that spreads flesh eating zombies across the Irish countryside after a particularly nasty strain of mad cow disease transforms a series of quiet farming communities into hotbeds of the undead. McMahon is clearly a fan of the genre but his own entry is a little too uneven and derivative to stand with the genre’s best.

The film opens late at night on a remote farm. A farmer is woken by a disturbance somewhere on his grounds. He goes out to investigate but is struck down by an angry bovine. We then cut to daylight and Helena – the young woman we will follow throughout – on a drive through the countryside with her boyfriend. While sharing a moment they strike and, apparently, kill a pedestrian. They inexplicably decide to load the corpse into their car and take it to town and when it turns out that the pedestrian is dead but still mobile Helena strikes out across country for help. It quickly becomes apparent that this is a full on plague. Helena teams up with a young grave digger and the duo fight for their survival together.

Before criticizing the film it is important to point out that McMahon does a lot of things well and had this film released at a time when the market hadn’t been flooded with exceptionally strong zombie films it would likely be received more happily. As it is, though, it suffers by comparison. McMahon’s strong points lie in his camera work which is very strong and showcases his unusual setting to great effect, some clever set pieces, quality physical prosthetics, and some strong character work from his grave digger. When things are clicking the films crackles along nicely.

But it doesn’t always click and even when it does it often does so in the shadow of superior films. McMahon shoots some great film, yes, but he borrows the Evil Dead’s low to the ground roaming point of view shots far too obviously and often. He seems a little uncertain of whether he wants Dead Meat to be a serious horror film or a splatter comedy and never commits fully to either. There are some pacing problems with a few stretches dragging a bit and action sequences becoming repetitive thanks to an over reliance on a shovel as a weapon. There are some fantastic shovel prosthetics, but there’s really only so much you can do with one before you run out of options. The big problem, however, is the characterization. The grave digger character is solid and believable, but he’s the only one. Helena, who is supposed to be our entry point, has as much depth as a sheet of paper and her reactions frequently ring false. Another major character is a lift from McMahon’s earlier Brain Eater and seems to be largely an in joke for people who have seen that earlier film. Yes, this is a wildly unrealistic scenario but you still need to have your characters behave believably or else it just falls apart and McMahon misses on this level far too often.

So … not a great film. But what about the presentation? This is the first release from the UK’s new Fright Fest imprint and if this is any indication of what’s to come genre fans have a new favorite label. The packaging alone tells you that these people care about what they’re doing. Great artwork, with the typical hard plastic case packaged in a matte cardboard slip out. In a nice little touch the artwork includes a Fright Fest volume number … clearly Fright Fest is going to maintain consistent packaging across their releases and encourage people to buy them as sets and series. Hey … I had scores of Hardy Boys books all lined up on my shelves as a kid, why not a nice numbered row of Fright Fest DVDs? The film itself gets a solid anamorphic transfer with deep, true blacks. Sound is 5.1 and you get commentary from the director and producer along with a lengthy behind the scenes feature and McMahon’s award winning Brain Eater short. Is there a horror film imprint out there that gives these b-film DVDs a-grade releases? There is now.

The film itself will likely be of interest primarily to fans of the genre, zombie completists and the like. McMahon certainly shows a lot of promise but he needs to learn a lesson in pacing and characterization before he’ll be ready to play with the big kids. This release, however, will undoubtedly elate fans of the film as it’s just quality from start to finish.