The Alien Dead (1980)

I'll tell you why so serious

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Fred Olan Ray brings us The Alien Dead, a zombie film that, despite its title, has little to do with aliens. Fred is good at making cheesy movies like these since at least they aren't completely trashy, there are some OK elements in the film, but overall its really just a z-movie.The film opens up on both a narration and a prologue, the narration its pretty useless since there isn't a consistent narrator in the film, the narrator its only in the film at the beginning, making it useless, not only that, but its also one of the few decent scenes in the film, after that there's a prologue, which isn't as good as the narration scene but it at least has something to do with the film, you choose between a narrator or a story that unfolds, not both, Fred. After that the film goes down hill, in pure z-grade fashion.The zombies in the film are people with make up on them making them look really bad, but if you like z-grade films you may like it, even laugh at it, some of the gore effects are decently done, but they are ruined because of the awkward editing and music in the "horror" scenes, there is no sound on those scenes, just weird music, which its very bizarre, but not rare for this kind of film. Some of the music on the film isn't really that bad, it may be a decent score.What you get from this movie its exactly what you would get from a z-grade zombie film, hooky acting, trashy effects, trashy writing, trashy directing, its trash, but it may be fun trash if you are willing to accept it.

Of course this is quite a bad movie but it also was far from the worst thing I have ever seen. The movie was at least entertaining to watch throughout.You have simply some bad movies and then you have some bad movies that are so bad to watch that they actually become good and fun to watch. This is foremost the case with this movie. It basically has a non-existent story and the movie has a very amateur like look and feeling to it. The acting is horrible, the dialogs are laughable but the movie does never bore and is actually quite fun to watch. And let me tell you, this really isn't the case with all the movies within this genre.Don't pay too much attention to this movie its title, it's really a zombie-flick in essence. There is nothing too original about this movie or its concept and it's obvious that Fred Olen Ray watched a lot of other well known genre movies to use as a source for his 'inspiration'. But it has basically everything in that that a zombie-movie lover wants from the genre. There is some blood and gore, though it's nothing too impressive looking but how could it really with the budget these guys had to work with.It was quite fun to still see Buster Crabbe in this. He once played Tarzan, Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, so back in his days he was quite the star. A lot of actors from those old days however ended up in movies like this, no matter how talented or big they were once.This is basically what a movie would look like if a bunch of friends who had a couple of beers say, why don't we go and make a zombie-flick? Nothing about this movie truly impresses and it's a weak movie in basically every aspect but you'll nevertheless have fun watching it. 4/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Ah, zombies and hillbillies! Can you think of a better recipe for fantastically awful B-movie entertainment? "The Alien Dead" is a true winner! It's a truly horrendous 70's no-budgeter with a seemingly improvised script, more inexperienced redneck actors than you can wave a stick at and painfully inept dialogs that nearly make your ears hurt. This debut feature of legendary bad film maker Fred Olen Ray (if you don't count the half-long "Brain Leeches" and "Demented Death Farm Massacre" for which he just shot some additional footage) is set in a little Louisianan swamp town where some really strange occurrences are taking place. Following the crash-landing of a meteor, all the alligators suddenly vanished mysteriously and a local drunk fisherman keeps claiming his wife got dragged into the water by "something". Then, swiftly, "The Alien Dead" turns into a zombies-on-the-rampage flick! Can you actually believe that the zombies ran out of alligators to eat, so they switched to villagers instead?!? First there's one zombie attacking a lone girl. Then there's a bunch of zombies devouring a stereotypical elderly couple (she chases her husband with a frying pan, for crying out loud) and finally there's a whole army of zombies chasing two sole survivors. Oh, and did you know that zombies use pitchforks? They do! There are some fantastic supportive characters in this piece of junk, like a deputy with a fetish of waving his whacking bat around and a sheriff in desperate need of some anger management. He also refuses to investigate the swamp because there are too many mosquitoes. Excuse me? You're really working in the wrong district if you're afraid of mosquitoes, pal! There are numerous little examples to illustrate the average IQ of the local swamp rednecks. The more incidents we have with zombies attacking people in the lake, for example, the more dim-witted town members aimlessly decide to spend their free time there. There's a blond girl who goes to the absolute most remote spot in the Bayou all by herself to have a skinny dip. And because everybody loves boobs, this exact same ritual is repeated twice in a span of nearly twenty minutes (albeit with a brunette the second time). The zombie attacks are filmed in slow-motion to increase the dramatic effect, I suppose, and they actually look more like a bunch of retarded rednecks fondling a victim on the ground. Characters that were previously devoured by zombies re- appear later in the film and cheerfully get killed again! The make up effects are gory but hilariously fake, with cups full of blood spurting out of people's mouths and chests. But what I found the most hilarious little detail to spot was how all the male swamp zombies immediately grab for the female victims' breasts! It's obvious that these yokel extras wanted to make some additional personal benefit! There's one really good sequences in the film as well (I'm not kidding really), namely when the investigators go and visit the psychiatric clinic to interrogate the first person to claim there was something not quite kosher with the swamp. That scene even has suspense and a surprise twist. And, no, I'm really not kidding! At the end of "The Alien Dead" absolutely nothing is solved. The town still is – and probably always will – be infested with zombies! But who cares, right? Let's go to the bar and listen to some banjo music… Never mind the miserable rating I've given this movie. It's a must-see!

The premise of "Alien Dead" is that a space-born disease infected a bunch of bayou rednecks and after they finished up all the alligators they start eating the locals.Fred Olen Ray's "Alien Dead" is so bad that it quickly becomes hilarious.The acting is utterly terrible,only veteran actor Buster Crabbe can act.The makeup consists of Halloween masks for the male zombies and the women are mostly leggy hot blonds with white and black face paint.There is also a decent amount of gore including some cannibalistic feasts.I have seen plenty of awful zombie flicks including "The Chilling","Zombie Lake" or "Zombie Brigade" and I must say that "Alien Dead" is at least watchable,if you are in the right mood.That's why I give it 5 out of 10.