Very Cool!!!

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Charming and brutal

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

"Dead Above Ground" is a clichéd and rather dry but entertaining slasher.**SPOILERS**As a new school-year starts, students Jeffrey Lucas, (Josh Hammond) Darcy Peters, (Lauren German) Dillon Johnson, (Charlie Weber) Kelly Britton, (Keri Lynn Pratt) Latrisha McDermont, (Regan Gomez-Preston) Bobby Mooley, (Tony Denman) Jason Johnson, (Craig Kirkwood) and Zara Light, (Adria Dawn) gather together with Principal Hadden, (Stephen J. Cannell) for a screening of their film projects. When Jeff's is laughed at, he vows revenge before accidentally killing himself. A year later, when the next year starts, new student Chip Palmer, (Adam Frost) arrives and soon afterward, a vicious murder spree starts throughout the school, targeting the ones who had been marked for vengeance. Going through a séance to try to stop him, it only results in the murders occurring more rapidly. Racing to save the remaining friends, they find the reason behind the murders and the actual identity of the killings.The Good News: This was a pleasingly decent slasher film. The best part is that this manages to stay watchable when there isn't that much slashing going on. Including the different police investigations and double-crossing with each other included within means that it's always twisting and turning, especially as the one who is set up through the crosses is one that couldn't have done it. That the evidence seemingly comes in against them is quite ingenious and does throw the trail off slightly is a nice surprise. When it decides to forego the detective stuff and go for the stalking, it's not that bad. The long black trench-coat and propensity for an ax as the central weapon make it a pretty imposing one, and the later mask used, which is burned and red and scarred, and it does have some creepiness to it. The first victim is the most interesting death of them all. The victim sits in his van, smoking pot and hears someone outside. Going out to check who's there, but in a real surprise, a vicious crow appears from out of nowhere and attacks him. He jumps back into the van but the crow is vicious and follows him into the van. With many bloody pick-bruises, he manages to escape the van but the killer is standing there ready to put an ax in his stomach. Another kill, where the killer traps a man inside his large Gothic mansion and eventually trapping him inside a closet. Hearing noises, he stabs a knife through the door in self-defense, and after seeing blood, he comes out to see he has accidentally stabbed his wife, and the killer then reemerges and viciously hacks him up with an ax. Sure, it's a cliché scene, but it's done nicely. All the others aren't that bad, as a victim gets a sword through the stomach, another gets his throat slit and a guy gets an ax in his stomach. Pretty average, but good enough for this one. This here has it's moments of potential.The Bad News: For all it gets right, there's some things that don't really work. One of the main problems is that it's really slow pace. It's such a long time after the accident before the killings start happening with any frequency, with the majority of the middle section devoted to the police's investigation. Had it been broken up by a couple more kills to break up the monotonous yet entertaining police entertaining. It has an ability to seem boring and slow, and is a problem that can be hard to get through. Another problem is that there's a real dearth in the body count and gore. There's only a few deaths in the film, and most of them are just unspectacular as well. It barely registers as a half-dozen kills, and considering that there's a good dozen or more main characters in here, this lack of deaths is troubling. This means that, due to the unspectacular deaths and the similarity to many of them, this makes it way to light for being a slasher film. The unoriginality of it is another problem, as there's been tons of times that an outside has sworn vengeance on a group of individuals and soon after a mysterious accident, the group is soon slaughtered one-by-one by a sinister force with a connection to the original spurned person. It's been done to death and doesn't have any more new stuff to bring up. With a little more creativity, this could've been a halfway decent slasher film.The Final Verdict: With some really big problems that might move this one down on most people's lists, this is instead a really decent one that will mainly appeal to the hardcore slasher enthusiasts. Otherwise, there's better ones out there in this particular genre that are better off being seen.Rated R: Graphic Language and Violence

while this movie is marketed at a horror film, let me just say right out that is in fact the exact opposite. it is so funny in its awfulness. you know how ed wood movies are funny because they are so bad? well dead above ground is right up there. you can tell that the crew had good intentions of making a scary movie but it is so forced and benign. actually the movie is quite painful to watch at first. i finished it floored and amazed at the stupidity of it all. Cliché characters, zero plot continuity, unrealistic dialogue, cheesy special effects... it's got it all. BUT after watching it again, this time with a group of friends... it has now become one of our most quoted movies! As a group, we found it hysterical! It is so rotten, it's fantastic! Who could forget such memorable lines as, "KABOOM! Coach scores!" or "Stop laughing! You're all dead above ground!" A ridiculous portrayal of goth kids, an inept tough-guy cop with feathered hair, a completely unromantic 5 second sex scene, and a cliff-hanger ending! What's great is we still sit around talking about how much we hate this movie yet we still talk about it! Prepare for hilarity with this piece of cinema!

Stephen Cannell?! The man behind the A-Team? And my favorites "Rip Tide" and "Wiseguy"? This... TURKEY... is an example of what the poorest written low-budget horror film would look like. I mean, a team of monkeys could do better than this.I've seen many, many horror flicks, and this rates so far down there. It's completely unwatchable. I mean, there's no payoff anywhere. It's an insult to view. Even worse that George Lucas was drawn into this for no reason. Worse, the acting, characters, story, dialog, plot, and everything else just suck, suck, suck. On the positive side, if you're looking to make a horror film yourself, view this film to see how NOT to do it. If you have an idea that's even a little better than this one, you can be one- up on Cannell himself. Speaking of which, WHY was he even in this film? He looked like this old dude in a film that presents a plot SO implausible... it's an insult. To whit: the coach gets fired, yet hangs around the parking lot to harass a teacher (Cannell), and he doesn't do anything about it. The best part of the film is Sabato, Jr, though you have to wonder why he had anything to do with this piece of detritus.The original title was "Director's Cut", and according to Cannell's website the movie would allow them to "experiment with new narrative ideas, visual styles and different approaches to editing". Also on the website "We were really stepping out," said Bowman. "So we needed to keep absolute creative control." Uh, yeah. Just promise me never, EVER do it again.

I just saw this film on DVD and I really don't know WHY I rented it. It's one of the worst films I ever seen... However is fun to see how stupid are the characters, how bad the story is... The only known face is Antonio Sabato Jr. (who did his hair???) and this isn't a good sign. The other male star is a young actor who worked on that wonderful series that's "Buffy" and I can't understand how he passed from a great tv-show to a pathetic straight-to-video Z-horror film like this. The worst thing is the screenplay: no one cares about the deaths that are happening in the town; there is the classical, stupid (and absolutely bad) sex sequence and the death sequences are really BAD!!!And, of course, there is the classic final scene that makes you think there'll be a sequel...I really hope not.