Post by Mr.HoRrOr on Mar 23, 2006 14:28:25 GMT -5
Plot:Tony Todd plays Shadow, a convicted criminal on death row. During his death walk he performs a ritual and upon his execution the cells burst open with crazy inmates. They where all then slaughtered, thrown into a mass burial at the prison and it was shut down.
Years later its now a womans prison. One of the inmates who was pregnant has her baby over Shadows unmarked grave. The blood revives him and his long dead cellmates to wreak havoc.
Cast:
Carla Greene
Tony Todd
Erin Brown
John Wooten
Lee Burkett
Andrea Langi
Moet Meira
My Thoughts:Very well written, acted, and entertaining B horror flick.
Review:What do you get when you mix a cheesey kung fu flick, with a cheesy zombie movie, throw in some occult elements, and have it all play out inside a womans prison? You get "Shadow Dead Riot", because that's pretty much what this movie intails. While you would expect a discombobulated mess, "Shadow dead riot" delivers on every aspect of it's diverse makeup which makes the film fun to watch, as opposed to annoying and tedious. While Tony Todd doesn't get much screentime in the film, newcomer Carla Greene who plays Solitaire, uses the opportunity to show us her stuff and she does an excellent job in the movie carrying the film on her back until Tony Todd comes back into the picture later on. Tony Todd in "Shadow Dead Riot" is playing yet again, another creepy individual who lives to give the viewer his or her daily dose of the willies. Unlike "Final Destination 1 and 2" where he plays the eerie morgue guy who gives the young ones advice on how to cheat death, in "Shadow Dead Riot", Todd is back to his villain roles, playing a murderer called "Shadow". "Shadow" is a creepy looking dude with teeth that he himself has filed into jagged, razor like shapes. Shadow is about to be executed for his crimes by the wardens, but he has other ideas, and pulls a black magic trick where he turns all of the prisons inmates into zombies. The undead prisoners escape their cells, and begin to attack the prison guards. The prison guards retaliate by opening fire on the prisoners and during the melee a huge explosion occurs, which kills shadow. The wardens bury shadows smashed body along with the dead prisoners in a mass grave in the prison yard, and thus our story begins. Now fast forward years later, the prison is now a womens correctional facility, and Solitaire is it's newest prisoner. As I stated before Carla Green plays the tough, cunning, and clever Solitaire very well in this movie. The film spends most of it's time as a typical womens prison movie with your typical womens prison types. The bully who has her two lackies with her, and who wants to let the new girl know she runs things around "the joint", the woman who is imprisoned because of what someone else did, the wimpy girl played by Misty Mundae (Masters of Horror Sick Girl), who doesn't seem like she belongs amongst such societal misfits, and even a lipstick lesbian prison guard who plays dominatrix with some of the female prisoners when her boss isn't looking. There's also a creepy old guy who is the prison doctor and who takes certain "liberties", with almost every female prisoner that comes to him for treatment, but kudos to the films writers, Michael Gingold and Richard Siegel for giving his character a purpose in the movie, other than being a perv. It seems the good doctor knows all about Shadow, the botched execution attempt all of those years ago, and has even kept some of his blood from it which he injects Solitaire with, unbeknownst to her. Because most of the movie plays out as a prison film, it allows the film to engage it's action part of the story with Solitaire having many various confrontations with the prison bully "Mondo" and her lackies, and I must say...for a low budget film the action scenes weren't too shabby at all. Solitaire also shares some sort of connection with Shadow which through flashbacks is slowly revealed and brought to the forefront...once Shadow escapes his grave thanks to a woman who gives birth right in the prison yard. Her blood seaps into the soil..reanimating him and his undead legions. Once shadow fully returns, the film kicks into "Resident Evil" mode where Solitaire is fending off zombies left and right and eventually has to come face to face with Shadow himself who fills her in on their "connection". "Shadow:Dead Riot" manages to blend alot of different elements and yet still be entertaining as hell. From start to finish, it's a film that's very enjoyable, and even throws in some black humor which includes a rampaging zombie fetus! (I'm not kidding about that by the way). It might not be Tony Todd's best performance to date, but it isn't his worst either.
Pros:More than enough blood and gore to satisfy, great action scenes, and a strong lead female character in Carla Greene as Solitaire. A pretty good story as well, and a nice blend of different genre elements.
Cons:The "Shadow" character should've been expanded upon more but he was still a pretty bad ass villain.
Overall:Pretty cool B movie that makes the best of what it has at it's disposal.