Death Warmed Up

I thought I was going to like Death Warmed Up. For starters the description talks about zombies, and I do like zombie movies. Titles from Night of the Living Dead to Resident Evil line my shelves.

I could tell from the start that this was going to be low budget and probably campy, but it still showed promise initially. Dr. Howell, a man who doesn't mind experimenting on humans, brainwashed young Michael into killing his parents in order to get Michael's dad, a doctor who disagreed with Howell's practices, out of the way.

Flash forward a few years and Michael is being released from a mental institution. He has tracked Howell down to an island research facility and is out for revenge. He's taking a few of his young friends to the island under the ruse of a vacation so he can have a look around and maybe get a shot at the mad doctor.

So far so good. It's a good setup. I was ready for Michael to go up to the guy and say something along the lines of, “Hello. My name is Michael (whatever his last name is). You made me kill my father. Prepare to die.”

Unfortunately the story soon dissolves into a series of mindless chase scenes and standoffs that don't really have much story to them and aren't done well enough to be worth watching on their own. There's virtually no emotional impact or any other reason to keep watching.

“What about the zombies?” you ask? Hrumph, this is as much a zombie movie as is a racing movie because there's a car chase. Some of Howell's current experiments have become little more than mindless animals. Towards the end they get loose and cause some havoc on the island. There's your zombies.

The acting is not great but could be worse I suppose. These are unknown actors, at least to me. They sound Australian, but I'd be willing to be no one from there has heard of them either.

Ultimately I got bored despite all the action. I quickly quit caring about Michael or any of the other characters. Now that a few days have passed since watching it I can't even recall exactly how it ended. Maybe I fell asleep. Maybe I'm still asleep. Maybe you are, too, and we're just sharing a dream where I'm writing a review that you're reading. Or maybe I don't exist at all and this is just inside you own head.

MORALITY:

If this movie isn't rated R it deserves to be. There is a lot of violence and blood including some graphic brain surgery. If watching someone get the top of their skull sawed off grosses you out then be prepared to close your eyes a few times. Heads explode, and people get shot up.

There is some male nudity in a non-sexual scene and some female nudity in a sex scene. There is some other innuendo and sexuality.

The strong language is frequent and includes religious slurs as well as vulgar sexual comments.

SPIRITUALITY:

Killing is badong.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Do yourself a favor and skip this one. You'll thank me tomorrow.

#DeathWarmedUp