Undead (2003) - 2002 Spierigfilm Screener (Bootleg?) VHS

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Peter and Michael Spierig's Undead is ultimately your typical exercise in amateur filmmakers embarking on their first feature that pays heavy-handed homage to well known cult influences. One should expect the usual gory odes to Romero, Raimi-like camera tricks, and nods to John Woo's hyper-stylized gunplay lovemaking. Hampering the fun is dragass dialogue mostly from characters that have little impact on the story and quickly end up as zombochow. Even then, any real development is slim while we wait for the next exploding head. The sci-fi twist that reveals itself later on is unique and the score is unexpectedly fantastic, but the 104 minute duration gets to be an endurance test too often.

Lionsgate's DVD actually has seven minutes of trims for pacing. I've heard complaints over this, like the assumption the studio figured American audiences would get bored with the story, although the omissions might help (much like the shorter 976-EVIL). I only have Australian disc so I can't say either way. This VHS was a cheap grab from eBay and probably didn't garner much attention since the printed cover and tape look dodgy. The strange thing is the tape starts with a splash screen that runs down the film's technical specs, then film leader, and timecode along the bottom the screen for the entire film. The picture and sound quality are quite good and the film appears to be in its completed form. It's hard to exactly say what the deal considering the cheapness of the cover and cassette. It's definitely not from a DVD though...