Prison of the Dead (2000)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Absolutely Brilliant!

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Before I even waste time on this, I'll tell you why I rented it. My girlfriend apparently likes to rent bad B horror films and pick at them. While this sounds like a fun evening, I now remember why I like GOOD horror films (I'm still waiting for a good one to come out of the USA that isn't a remake). I want the 2 hours of my life back I lost watching it. The plot is nonexistent... some rich guy invites friends to a funeral home, then there are plot twists that just plain SUCK. A mysterious key, the lamest zombies ever seen on film (watch as you see the same zombies come out of the ground two or three times over, from the same angle) and the worst acting this side of high school.I CANNOT comprehend how some person that was involved in this film didn't catch half the crap they let through to the final edit. I seem to remember having fun watching really bad movies... but when they're this bad, well.. it just hurts. I knew when I saw it in Blockbuster as a double-feature with "Hell Asylum" it would be a bad B movie... but not this bad.

Five Paranormal investigators meet(I will not tell you why they meet)at a funeral home that for some reason is in a castle. Full Moon fans will identify this castle, due to the fact that it has been used in many Full Moon productions. After they meet up they try to contact the spirit of the former Executioners that watched over the prison. Oh yeah I forgot to mention that conveniently under the funeral home is an old prison. This is the place where former witches and other villains were tortured and killed. Let's stop here and point out something that still has me scratching my head. When these group of "Paranormal Investigators", decide to contact the spirit, they pull out a Ouija board. Nothing strange here right? Well they start freaking out like they have never even touched one before. Isn't this a tool of the trade in their profession? After I set there in disbelief over this, I realized how horribly bad the acting was. I don't mean like after school special bad, I mean like 8th grade video class project bad. I thought the acting is bad but maybe the Executioners will make up for it. If a Wal-Mart Halloween mask means making up for it, than yeah I guess it did. This one is bad folks. If they threw in some gore, than maybe it could have helped out this awful story. The only resemblance to gore would be the blood squirt in the face bit. Boy did they wear that out fast to. The only reason to watch this piece of crap is to have a good laugh, and believe me there is plenty of those to be had.

I just saw this on Scifi Channel a while back and I was bored.<p>This film didnt scare me or frighten me and I am someone who has been scared by Child's Play and Phantasm.<p>Not a movie to see in my opinion if you want a good scare and not a movie anyone who did this film should be bragging about on their resumes.

I would consider myself a fan of b-movie label Full Moon Pictures. I've seen and defended many of their films, and a friend and I have an inside joke regarding this film and its rather tacky tagline, "There's No Parole... in Hell!". I decided to rent it and see if its really as bad as our jokes about the tagline suggest. Turns out it's even worse, because of disappointing villains and gaping holes in the plot.The acting and effects, while far from Oscar-worthy are, like all Full Moon films, competent. The executioners have an interesting dark figure and profile, but their faces looked more like budget Halloween masks, particularly with those eyes; they don't have the character of, say, Puppet Master's puppet villains or even Killjoy. There might as well have been only one executioner, since their faces aren't clear enough that the differences are obvious, and, up until the ending, most of the killing scenes had but one executioner at a time (and when multiple executioners are featured, only one is really active at a time). Also, the aspect of the victims being randomly possessed and paralyzed by a mysterious force (which I recently found out is supposed to be the spirit of one of the tortured witches) before their slaughter takes away any menacing element of the executioners, as it appears that they are too slow or otherwise unable to pursue and kill any victim on their own, and can only "finish off" these "frozen" victims.Though the executioners are pretty disappointing, the film's major problem is its poor plot. It's a great idea - an abandoned prison that is haunted by the ghosts of tortured witches and ghoulish executioners, but then all the disjointed mini-plots (for lack of a better term) are brought in. Funerals? Million-dollar rewards? Sex with a zombie? It doesn't help that the gaping holes between these sub-plots are made much more evident when the entire story seems to shift on the fly. The ending manages to tie a few together by luck, but it's also shifted to on the fly, underwhelming, anti-climactic, and abrupt (calling it rushed would be an understatement)."Prison of the Dead" is a bad film, even by b-movie standards. Although no b-movie is perfect, and the only notable difference between this and any other Full Moon film may be just that it's easier to spot the plot holes, trying to fit the assorted mini-plots together isn't fun, and the executioners aren't as enjoyable as killer puppets/toys/dolls, ghetto clowns, or even demonic gladiator-possessed teens. As usual, the effort is there, but this time, it's just not entertaining!