Critics,are you kidding us

Brilliant and touching

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

Oh sweet merciful Video Gods, why have you done this to me?Okay, so here is the deal - Independent International head Sam Sherman buys Brett Piper's cheap-o zombie flick DYING DAY and decides to shoot new footage for it (featuring Scotty Schwartz!) to create RAIDERS OF THE LIVING DEAD, a film so convoluted that cut-n-run producer Godfrey Ho probably saw it and said, "What the hell is going on here?" Naturally, two story lines are working here. Storyline #1 - reporter Morgan Randall (Robert Deveau) is working on a story about experiments involving the living dead. Storyline #2 - young Jonathan (Scott Schwartz) builds a ray gun out of his grandpa's (30s western star Bob Allen) laserdisc player (!?!). The two scenarios crash together when grandpa picks Randall up off the street and he tells him his wild story and they all decide to attack the zombies. Confused? I hope so. If you think trying to mix two films together is this film's biggest problem, you got another thing coming. Wait until you see the laser effects, which consist of scratching the actual interpositive according to Sherman on the commentary. It is not because they are incompetent he pleads, it is just that they had no time. All of this pales in comparison to the logic on display from Piper's section where Randall is attacked by zombies but survives. He is saved on the roadside by a female cop the next day and what does he do? Does he tell her what happened? Hell no! He goes into town, buys a sawed off shotgun, rents a room and then asks his female companion to accompany him to a screening of some THREE STOOGES movies. Do whhhhhhhhat?Image Entertainment felt the need to release this in a 2-disc super special edition that contains 3 versions of the film. You bastards! One extra is DYING DAY, the original version of the film. This has Morgan Randall (Deveau again) on the run cross country from zombies for the past two years trying to escape a family curse. He ends up in New Hampshire and, after being hit by a car, ends up shacking up with a nurse before heading into town to buy a shotgun and hit the flicks for some THREE STOOGES (not seen this time). The nurse has feelings for Randall though and urges him to get to the root of this family curse since he is the last of the line. Turns out Randall's Great Great Grandfather had some sugar cane fields in Cuba. When ol' Grandpa got frisky with a slave's wife and she spurned his advances, he had her whipped to death and her husband when to Haiti and got this curse placed upon his boss. Damn you Great Great Granddad! It is really fascinating to watch DYING DAY right after RAIDERS and almost made the experience of sitting though that one worth it. Almost. Brett Piper's initial film is decent enough and has a slight Lovecraft "Lurking Fear" vibe to it with the cursed family and all. It is kind of confusing as to why Sam Sherman went out of his way to re-shoot and eventually re-shape nearly the entire picture. This clocks in at 80 minutes and I'm sure he could have just shot some filler of zombies killing someone to crank it up to 90 minutes. Instead, Sherman junked most of the footage and I would say roughly 25 minutes of this appear in RAIDERS OF THE LIVING DEAD. It is a much more serious film and, while it wasn't a classic by any means, it could have been decent. Plus, it features more gore and nudity, which RAIDERS sorely lacked.

This is truly a movie for the die-hard B-movie fan. The camera work, dialogue, and everything else looks like it was done from the goodwill store prop and makeup department. Oh my what were they thinking here? There are people who look like they have on old Halloween paint on their faces. An old man who thinks he's playing cowboys and indians and two kids who invent a death ray from an old laser disk player…wonder if he put the plans on the internet…I have use for such a gadget. This review is as disjointed as the movie…but its sooooooo bad!!! I have seen better things and I have seen some worse things and this will have to be up there in the worse category. I don't know how to say it anymore than that!!! If you're just Looking to waste some time or want a movie that just runs in the background of a Halloween party for noise, this is the movie for you!!! radiofreetech.com!!!

If you're looking for one of those "so bad it's good" movies, then ROTLD is the movie you want. Featuring characters with no background or motivation beyond "reporter," "Grandpa" and "child genius," scenes of complete silence and - best of all - a villain "reveal" that makes Scooby Doo's "I would have got away with it, too, if it wasn't for you pesky kids," look complex this film is, quite frankly, an absolute stinker.Worth watching if you've a few likeminded friends and a crate of beer handy, but other than that, this film is without merit. Zombie or horror fans expecting a "proper" horror movie should avoid at all costs.

Well, maybe I wouldn't go as far as the above, but this movie is really good! As a fan of "bad" movies, I thought this movie was incredibly stupid, but it was great! Samuel M. Sherman is one of my favorite producer/directors. Right up there with Roger Corman and Stanley Kubrick! He plays the film well, using the little money that he had to produce an entertaining zombie horror. I am a fan of George A. Romero's "Dawn of the Dead", and this movie is not in any was a knock off of it! That is an acheivment in itself, as everyone knows that most films with the words "Living Dead" in the title owe a lot to Mr. Romero. So, if your a fan of "my kind of movies", "King Kong Lives" (1986), Plan 9 From Outer Space (1958) and Samuel Sherman's production of "Dracula vs. Frankenstein" (1972), then this film is AN ESSENTIAL WATCH! 8.5/10