User Reviews

I never even heard of this movie beyond stumbling upon it upon Amazon. I thought, hey this sounds great! A zombie film that seems on all levels of wrong! I was right and wrong...

I know this movie was made on a low budget, but come on! We live in the digital age here folks! I want to see what is happening, really I'm quite interested. It was so dark and granulated like something you might see on you tube or a twenty year old VHS.

Perhaps this movie didn't touch all that sets me off during a movie, I mean comparing this movie to Shaun of the Dead is quite unjust. I know I'm sounding kind of harsh here, Special Dead did have some very good moments and great handling of handicapped theme, but nun-chuck guy got on my nerves, he didn't have enough moxie to act that way. I felt it lacked some irony that make 'spoofs' like this funny. I was expecting him to get 'zombie' after showing his love for the dead with the zombie chick.

I did enjoy the misplaced criminal though, he really gave me a laugh with 'helmet girl'. I enjoyed some of the handicapped banter, and creative use of glue sticks for shutting up zombies. I'm sure there were even more funny moments in this film, but I really am hard pressed to remember them right now.

Perhaps it may grow on me if I were to watch it again, but hey, it is going in the right direction, fans of the genre should give it a try if only to say you watched it. Like films of this sort, make up your own mind.

I would love to give this movie more stars if I could only see what was going on! Why the release print is so dark is a mystery. I hope it can be fixed because this is a minor gem of satire, the type of film that the Politically Correct of the world loathe before they've even seen it.

The actors seem to love their molto-bizarro characters. Mark Bates as a Tourette's zombiehas his share of the funny moments, spewing out filth and bloodeverywhere. And David Reynolds sympathetically plays a bald ox of a zombie who literally loses his head in one of the most bizarre and mirth-inducing sequences in the film.

Weird people made this and weird people will like it. Now if the film can only be made more visible, it might attract a wider, weirder audience!

Special Dead takes place at Camp Special Dude, a ranch for the mentally handicapped. When a few new campers arrive at Special Dude, so do the undead! The campers and counselors have to fight to stop the outbreak and stay alive. As it says on Special Dead's IMDb plot summary: "It's a campy stampede of blood, boobs and gore as some "very special" people show that they can kick some serious undead ass." With that said let me get to reviewing this Zomedy! There is a really sharp picture during all of the daytime shots in the movie. Yet nights falls fairly early on in the film and most of the story takes place during the night. The picture is a bit grainy in the darker/night time scenes but that just helps to set a creepy atmosphere. After a second viewing of Special Dead at a friends house on a huge HDTV I can say that the quality of the picture really stands out.

The make up effects for the gore and undead was pretty damn good, it's just gross enough for you to want to attack these zombies with a bar of soap and a hose. A few of the zombies reminded me of the look of Fulci's zombies in Zombi 2, Dirty and nasty looking! The gore mixed with the humor very well. One nasty scene has a camp member joking about how stupid zombies are because he got bit by one, he then shows off his arm with an open gash and bubbling green blood inside, AWESOME. Another gore filled scene had me wondering why has quick set glue poured into a zombie's mouth never been used in a living dead story before? It seems like a logical way to stop a zombie from being able to bite you.

The sounds effects were spot on, A zombie gurgling with a mouth full of blood while it's face is getting smashed in, One of the counselors getting his face beaten against a tree while urinating, nasty flesh munching, and plenty of slashing, chain saws and loud gunfire all sounded awesome. The soundtrack was just alright. A few rap songs felt out of place but then again I'm not a huge fan of hip hop. All the other music styles worked great with what was going on during the film. The metal tracks really pick up the pace and give energy to the zombie ass kicking that going on. If there was a soundtrack available I'd would recommend picking it up for the Andy Allen songs, his character dies off kinda early in the story which is ashame since he's a great guitar player and has some really funny songs.

All of the characters are unique and the acting felt genuine from everyone. The actors playing the "special" kids at camp Special Dude don't come off as wanting to make fun of the mentally disabled, their characters just have fun making fun of each other. Random comments and jokes from the "special" kids are hilarious! "Pancake sized nipples" came out of no where and had me rolling on the floor. Is it wrong to laugh at how a mentally challenged person might normally act? Everything in Special Dead was pretty faithful to zombie-lore except one scene where the leader, Mac, has the ability to stop the attack of a female zombie by simple giving her a kiss. That one threw me off a little but besides that I recommend this DVD to everyone that loves Shaun of the Dead, Fulci's Zombi 2, Dawn of the Dead, and The Ringer. Long live the Zomedy!

I've been dying to see this movie since I first heard of it late last year. Sure, we could talk all day about just how "wrong" this movie is, but why not sit back, toss those bunched-up PC panties aside for a freaking hour and a half, and enjoy the heck out of this hilarious zombie movie already enjoying a cult following. And for what it's worth, name me one other movie that transforms the mentally challenged into heroes. That's what I thought. Anyway, Special Dead is just hilarious, not only milking numerous stereotypes for all they're worth, but kicking them once they're proverbially down. The zombies are just downright disgusting, their grey skin peeling off in bunches, their mouths filled with meat, blood, dirt, and heaven knows what else, and their blood just waiting to shoot out in mini-geysers as soon as they're attacked. I don't know what the chicken-eating zombie was actually eating, but it looked even nastier than the real thing. Low-budget horror filmmakers could learn a lot from watching this movie. Even the soundtrack, featuring the likes of Dark Reign and Eating Alice, is pretty kicking - although nothing tops Andy Allen's unique campfire song (there's even a sing-along version before the ending credits).

As the tagline says, "Sometimes heroes ride the short bus," and in this case they ride it to Camp Special Dude owned and operated by Cameron "Snuff" Stone (Larrs Jackson, who was just hilarious, especially on the topic of zombie horses), who bought the camp years ago for a song - because, we soon learn, it was infested with zombies. Snuff's second in command is his son Machiavelli "Mack" Stone (Jason Brubaker). Mack only seems to care about making time with female counselors Cassie (Amy Wade) and Harley (Haneka Haynes), but he turns out to have real skills when it comes to dispatching zombies. The "special" kids include Snuff's wheelchair-bound daughter Dale (Gia Franzia); Todd (Anthony Rutowicz), whose loud talking, hideous toboggan, and talent for making all kinds of things out of popsicle sticks do little to help him convince Dale to be his girlfriend; an uncommunicative mountain of flesh who could well be descended from Tor Johnson (David Reynolds); a shy "helmet head" (April Wade); and several others of less importance to the story. Adding greatly to the fun is Eriq (Jah Shams), a young gangster bound for boot camp who was accidentally placed on the wrong bus. All of the actors were darn near brilliant, if you ask me (especially Franzia and Rutowicz).

Don't write any of these characters off too soon, not even the most challenged among them. While guys like Mack rely mostly on obvious weapons such as shotguns, sickles, numchuks - yes, numchuks - and good, old-fashioned bare fists, the campers tend to adopt more unconventional fighting methods. Of course, not everyone can survive, so you get the additional treat of watching special campers taking on their now-zombified peers. You may want to turn your head at one point, though, as Mack demonstrates a most disgusting, non-lethal zombie-controlling method.

Now, maybe you're thinking you won't see any sex or nudity in a film like this - well, think again. You, along with some of the voyeuristic campers, will definitely see "boobies" at Camp Special Dude. You'll also hear plenty of foul language (of course, if I were fighting for my life against zombies, I would be cursing up a blue streak, too). For the most part, though, this is a genuinely original and creative film (a real rarity in the American-made horror genre). Just remember that everything you see here is all in the name of gory fun. Where else are you going to see a zombie with Tourette Syndrome? Needless to say, some people will feel deeply offended and outraged by this film (and most of them will undoubtedly condemn it without ever seeing so much as a trailer), but Special Dead wears such sobriquets as "the most offensive zombie movie ever made" with pride. I'll be enjoying this movie numerous times in the coming years.

"Special Dead" is a lot of fun if approached in the proper mood.

**SPOILERS**

Working at Camp Special Dude, Machiavelli Stone, (Jason Brubaker) is infuriated his sister Dale, (Gia Franzia) is in charge of the camp, a camp for handicapped people. When he finds evidence of a zombie infestation in the area, he gathers Cassie Hewitt, (Amy Wade) Harley Jacquette, (Haneka Haynes) Todd Slater, (Anthony Rutowicz) May Littlejohns, (April Wade) Eriq Eldorado, (Jah Shams) Ismael Ziegler, (David Reynolds) and Buck Renshaw, (Thomas Crnkovich) the others at the camp and tries to get them away from the deadly creatures. When they manage to get a handle on the situation, the zombies manage to get the upper hand and force them to defend themselves against the creatures. Having to resort to more outlandish tactics, the surviving members try to battle off the voracious zombies and get away.

The Good News: This was actually a lot of fun and had some good points going for it. One of the best assets to this one is the fact that there's just an incredible amount of action in this one, and that's a fun quality to have. The confrontations with the zombies are done nearly from the start, as we're barely fifteen minutes into the film before the campfire attack that sends everyone off running around the camp trying to seek shelter, and from there, it's just nonstop action through to the very end. There's no shortage of good scenes, from the attack out by the chicken coop to the battle in the outhouse and an extended fight in the parking lot, where a lot of different gags are used which are genuinely funny without trying to be as they're put into the situation logically. Other major fun comes from the two women getting into a real knock-down, drag-out, fist-fighting brawl that is certainly much harder than expected and comes off extremely well-done. The final race for freedom doesn't have as many obstacles to overcome as most, but the fact that it decides to end on a positive note and actually have more than just a couple surviving that brought them together, so it's only natural that there only be a couple of them since it goes with the larger-surviving-number story. The main reason why this is allowed to be so big and full of action is the result of the film's really furious pacing. As mentioned before, the attacks come in a little before the fifteen minute mark, so this one just doesn't have the time to do much of anything except get right into everything, which keeps the film moving along so quickly it never lets up, having a positive outcome as the result. That is greatly appreciated and makes it a much more enjoyable film. Also quite fun is the film's subtle humor, as the film doesn't go over-the-top to offend due to the subject matter and instead decides on giving little quips here and there, most surprisingly coming from the campers sniping at each other, but a couple visual gags, such as the guy looking up the girl's skirts as they argue fixing a truck or the self-referential humor when arming for the final fight are pretty good and are apart of the film's tone. Here, the zombies don't look terrible but are perfectly passable for the situation, not really going for the dead-centuries-look but still looking like zombies, which is nice and really gives them an appropriate menace. The last plus here is the gore, which here is nowhere near the top of the line for zombie films but holds it's own well, with plenty of gunshots splattering heads, a body adorned with arrows, limbs hacked up or ripped off and devoured, stabbing, impaling, slicing and more, leading to a ton of splatter as well as tons of blood-stained clothing in a memorable image. All of these make this film enjoyable.

The Bad News: This one did have a couple flaws for it that will hold it down. The biggest issue here is that the film decides to spend the majority of it's time dealing with the mentally-disabled, and the fact that they're involved heavily, often-times still in character when dealing with the zombies or other situations, may rub some people the wrong way. This one doesn't attack or make fun of people who have these conditions, it just merely wraps a horror film around the people who do and it won't matter that it does, as the mere inclusion of the subject matter maybe a sensitive issue for some and won't take it in the way this is intended. The only other thing it fails at is giving an explanation for anything that happens in the film. There's nothing said about the zombie's origin, as the pre-credit sequence doesn't offer anything remotely worthwhile and the characters here tend to think of them as an everyday facet of life that they must live with, but again no explanation story. The same goes for the purpose of the camp, which isn't a fault of the film at all since it's pacing is the cause for that and we aren't around long enough to find out. Otherwise, this one was quite enjoyable.

The Final Verdict: With a lot to like about it and some very mild, minor flaws in it, this one isn't that bad at all and has a lot of things going for it. Definitely give it a shot if you're able to handle the subject matter and are a huge fan of cheesy, entertaining zombie fare, while those who aren't should heed caution with it.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity, and a couple sex scenes