Gangs of the Dead

DVD Release

Urban life and the African-American experience, as I’m sure many fans black and white will attest, have not translated well to the big screen at all when it comes to the horror genre. The very thought of “urban horror” brings to mind ass-clenchingly bad films like Vampiyaz, Zombiez and Bloodz vs. Wolvez. While films like Tales from the Hood and Bones weren’t all that bad (in comparison to the three above), they certainly weren’t all that good either. Most of these films shed a negative light, if you haven’t already noticed, on the African-Americans community and urban living in general. It’s a damn shame more black filmmakers aren’t as brave or adventurous as Bill Gunn and his fantastic art-house horror film, Ganja & Hess. Instead of tackling the subject of race and addiction in the lower class urban community, most seem more interested in perpetuating stereotypes and product placement.

Now, honestly I’m not completely opposed to watching urban horror when it portrays African-Americans and Hispanics negatively because Lord knows we see our share of white folks at their idiotic “best” in horror all the time but it would be nice to see something other than “Who you be?” and “Que Pasa Vato?” I can tell you right now I wasn’t confident at all about sitting down to watch Gangs of the Dead because MOST gang related films written by white people tend to be a bit unrealistic.

Gangs of the Dead did not, as I had originally anticipated, disappoint me though. Matter of fact I found it downright entertaining for a zombie film that brings absolutely nothing to the table. This is your average “run, hide, barricade, fight & die” zombie film scenario and we’ve seen it a trillion times over ad nauseam…but…with a twist. The twist is the addition of two opposing gangs, an undercover informant, two police officers and a rich white weatherman. While that may not sound overwhelmingly unique, it does make for exciting conflict outside the scope of zombie invasion.

A few O.G. hardcore mutherfuckers from the ‘hood drop by an abandoned warehouse near the docks in order to recop from shady dealerama Mitchell (Phantasm’s Reggie Bannister) and are surprised by, and displeased to see, unexpected visitors drop by. Seems an opposing Hispanic gang has shown up about twelve hours early for their own recop and words are exchanged. Mitchell, not one to show favorites, decides to keep everybody as calm as possible so he can collect his money and deliver the goods.

Things don’t go down as planned though when a disturbance forces both crews’ attention outside the warehouse where all hell has broken loose! The location is swarming with cops and what appear to be very…hungry…hobos. Mitchell and the gangs are prepared to be about their business with deadly force until a police van barrels into the warehouse effectively smashing Mitchell, his M16 and any hope of blasting their way out of the warehouse.

Two opposing gangs and two police officers? Something has gotta give and it does! After a failed attempt to escape the surrounded warehouse one of the officers is engulfed by stinky zombie bums leaving the younger, less experienced officer at the mercy of Caesar and his boys. Will the two gangs be able to work together to escape the zombie horde or will the warehouse become their tomb?

Combining gangs and zombies is a tricky thing to do because you’ve got to be able to establish some kind of a logical balance between flesh-eating zombies and dudes raised in the kind of environment that necessitates hand-to-hand combat and gun battles. Director Stinnett and co-writer Kirssann Shipley do a decent job of humanizing the gang members without making them too weak which would have ruined the concept. The actors all maintained their characters nicely and the dialogue wasn’t as bad as the usual stale crap we hear in urban horror though Stinnett and Shipley could have perhaps updated some their slanguage a bit.

Eagle-eye horror geeks will spot all kinds of homage present including winks, nudges and backslaps to Return of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead. There’s no doubt in my mind the director is a genre fan and it shows. Shamblers anyone?

The production values are all top-notch and, believe it or not, the CG was actually used to great effect. Without sounding like a complete goremonger, I believe I would have liked to of seen a few more nasty, gruesome flesh-ripping sequences but you get what you get and Noel Gugliemi’s demise was a thing of beauty. You just don’t see heads yanked apart at the jaw anymore in low budget zombie flicks so kudos to Bob Hall and Almost Human, Inc. for another fantastic job. They’ve been doing some amazing work in the last few years and they just appear to be getting better and better.

As a quick side note, I was also quite impressed with Ceiri Torjussen’s score which wasn’t too overwhelming. I could be wrong but some of his work had a very Goblin-esque Zombi vibe to it and I’m not sure if that was at Stinnett’s insistence or my ears were just picking up on what I assumed to be an “audiomage.”  Either way it was wonderfully subtle and accented the film perfectly. Despite my passion for Hip Hop, I was glad I wasn’t subjected to it the entire film.

Gangs of the Dead is entertaining, ruthless and accessible to anybody looking for a solid zombie fix. Be sure to check this out or Caesar and his butt monkey will kick your ass!

Sorry…Bruce Almighty joke. I couldn’t resist it.