DVD REVIEW: THE BURNING DEAD / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: RENE PEREZ / SCREENPLAY: JEFF MILLER, JASON ANCONA / STARRING: DANNY TREJO, THOMAS DOWNEY, MONIQUA PLANTE, NICOLE CUMMINS / RELEASE DATE: TBC
Director Perez enjoys a career from splicing genres together; this time around, it’s zombies with the natural disaster movie. Trouble is, nobody told Perez that zombie flicks are indeed already disaster movies. The abysmal script from writers Ancona and Miller proves the duo can’t get past their own geeky agendas, with shoe-horned nods to comic books and the living dead. While a knowing throwback might have made The Burning Dead B-movie gold, Perez takes himself far too seriously.
Danny Trejo shows he’ll say yes to anything as American Indian stereotype Night Wolf spinning a tale to his disinterested kids seemingly at odds with their heritage. He offers up some dumb context to kick things off, before showing a couple of cannibals in 1846 who perish in laughable digital lava flow. Then it catches back up with the modern day, where two volcanologists find out the same volcano is due to blow and an evacuation warning is put out. And if American Indians, cannibals and lava wasn’t already weird enough, things get stranger still when the volcano inevitably pops off, releasing evil spirits which manifest as zombies.
The acting is utterly unconvincing, with Thomas Downey making Tommy Wiseau look like Marlon Brando, among other forgettable faces. The film may offer the most tenuous and trying set-up to any zombie movie, and that alone might be something worth a round of applause, but certainly none of your time.
