Written and Directed by: William Victor Schotten

Starring: Michael Hanton, Ashleigh Holeman, Jayson Garity, Joseph J. Zetts

Production Company: Schotten FilmWorks

Review by: Fatally Yours

Are you hankering for the good old days of zombie cinema, back when the film was grainy, the zombies looked properly decomposed, the blood flowed free and gore was flaunted? If you want a zombie flick that looks very old school but still maintains its modern entertainment sensibilities, look no further than Dead Life!

Maxx and his beer-guzzling, blue collar friends just want to spend their Saturday chilling on Maxx’s lawn drinking and listening to metal music. Maxx is working on restoring his father’s house, which was left to him after his dad passed. His father passed violently and suddenly, by his own hand, when Maxx was just a boy. The house is all Maxx has left of his dad. Meanwhile, across town, a man recounts to his daughter how some crazy guy bit off his finger the previous night! The man soon succumbs to flu-like symptoms, which soon turn into the deadly virus called Necrotizing Faceitis M. This virus kills the human body, but quickly reanimates it, keeping the heart and brain alive. Overnight the virus spreads through their Midwest town…when Maxx and his friends awake the next morning, they find their world turned upside down and the living dead right outside their door! As the days pass, their group dwindles and the virus continues its rampage through the United States. Will anyone survive?

Dead Life was quite a fun throwback film to the grainy zombie films of old. It was shot in 8mm, which gives the film a very vintage and gritty feel. Many will probably compare it to Night of the Living Dead in style and story, but Dead Life has a very different atmosphere. The characters are all likable and it is much more fun as opposed to the dread-filled Romero film. It also features a brutal heavy metal soundtrack and an eerie score that work well to give it an urgent atmosphere.

I thoroughly enjoyed the characters and actors playing them in this film. They all did a stand-up job at fleshing out their characters, even if some of them get dispatched by zombies within minutes of appearing on screen. Michael Hanton as Maxx did a great job. He was both tough and vulnerable at the same time. Jayson Garity and Joseph J. Zetts, who played his best buddies Rick and Dave, also did a stand-out job as well. I was really rooting for these guys to kick some zombie ass!

The story, written by director William Victor Schotten, while not original, still accomplished what it set out to do, and that is to entertain. The dialogue felt natural, not forced, and the situation felt very realistic. The explanation of the virus and how it spread so quickly (through the water supply) was very believable.

In addition to the acting, characters and the story, the film also delivers on the blood, guts and glory! There are several cringe-inducing scenes, including one scene in which a woman’s scalp is pulled off by a zombie, leaving her brain exposed! This particular character hangs around a bit, too, so all her bare-brained beauty can be taken in! There is also lots of flesh-tearing and gut-chomping. For a low-budget film, I thought the effects looked amazing! The makeup on the zombies also looked great. There were a ton of zombies, and all of them had full zombie makeup on. Many were bloodied up, had bites taken out of them and had bluish-gray, newly-dead skin. It’s incredible how great the zombies looked for how many of them there were, considering that this was a low budget flick.

For all you zombie lovers out there, I highly recommend checking out Dead Life. It’s a great action-packed zombie film full of gore that won’t disappoint those seeking some old school zombie fun!