Hulkeasexo it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

Sanjeev Waters A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

yeodawg The Boyz are part of a Zombie Eradication Squad cleans and sweeps houses for survivors of the Zombie Apocalypse, which is in full swing. Adorned in Top Gun Flight suits aviator glasses they are based in a front line surgical hospital where they crack sardonic jokes with the doctors there. The doctors and their orderlies are there to look for a cure to the Zombie Apocalypse. We get a glimpse of their daily grind as a Z.E.S. when they are called out to save survivors who showed up to protest the outright shooting of Zombies are attacked by said Zombies. In one of their patrols they run into a Cult of Survivors that Worship the Zombies and consider them the next step in the evolution of man.The hardest part of the movie is suspending all tactical and Zombie knowledge you have to date. This movie came out before "COPS" where we could see more tactful proficiency in middle-aged balding beer bellied cop clearing out a basement for a teen-age runaway than this squad clearing out a house. I was tearing my hair out as they're shuffling around with 3-4 cross-slung long barreled guns instead of a 45 and a Katana.

poe426 It's not so much that this one's a low-budget Super 8/Hi 8 hybrid of questionable quality that makes it worth watching, it's the fact that this guy stuck with it for four years and got it DONE (not unlike John Carpenter and Dan O'Bannon with DARK STAR, or Dennis Muren with EQUINOX, or David Lynch with ERASERHEAD, etc.). At a recent comic convention, I asked a panel of experts- John Russo, Russ Streiner, and George Kosana- about the difference in QUALITY between NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and its bastard offspring (like THE DEAD NEXT DOOR). Russo explained that, while NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD was a low-budget movie, it was made by a group of working professionals with years of experience under their collective belts: it wasn't just a knock-off of something else by somebody with a camcorder. (Not that there's anything wrong with that...) It's this experience that Bookwalter clearly lacked when he made THE DEAD NEXT DOOR- but at least he TRIED. As Russo says in his FILMMAKING SEMINAR (which also features Bookwalter): "At least make something. Don't do NOTHING!" Sound advice for anyone in any field, but especially true when you're dealing with no-budget filmmaking. I've spent FAR more time trying to talk people into making movies than I've spent actually MAKING them- and that's saying a lot: at last count, I realized that I'd started but had been unable to finish more than SIXTY shorts (thanks primarily to actors who bailed out on me for one reason or another- including the ENTIRE teen-aged cast of an X-MEN type of Public Access series I'd started, who walked out on me when I refused to buy them a case of beer after the first day of shooting)(I may have been desperate, but I wasn't THAT desperate). Bookwalter himself says: "Take what you have, do the best you can with it." Words to live by. Roger Corman (from HOW I MADE A HUNDRED MOVIES IN Hollywood AND NEVER LOST A DIME): "It is possible to go up against the system and win." NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is THE Prime Example of beating the odds, and even Bookwalter has gone on to carve out his own particular niche in the world of low-budget indie productions. I've always wanted to get at least ONE thing done that I could point to, that I could be proud of. It hasn't happened yet (and may never happen), but I'm reminded of something else Roger Corman said: "Is there tangible proof of your existence? When you make a movie, at least there is tangible proof. You create something." Like THE DEAD NEXT DOOR or not (and I DO), Bookwalter is a CREATOR- and that's saying something.

lovecraft231 If there's anything I hate, it's revisiting a movie I loved when I was a kid, then returning to it and realizing that it's not a very good movie. Case in point: "The Dead Next Door." The debut feature from micro-budget mainstay J.R. Bookwalter, it was made in the span of five years, shot on 8 mm camera, and financed and produced by Sam Raimi. The film was a revelation to me when I saw it as a teen. A made for next to nothing zombie movie that actually delivered and had some neat ideas! Well, I then learned there were tons of zombie movies like this, and though this is essentially the most well loved of the of micro-budget zombie movies, revisiting it years later as a 27 year old man, I realize that it's just not a good movie.The premise deals with the inevitable rise of the zombie apocalypse, and a government group called The Zombie Squad that must exterminate the scourge of the dead. Our heroes Raimi (ugh) (Pete Ferry), Mercer (Michael Grossi) and others soon head to Ohio, only to run afoul of a religious cult lead by Rev. Jones (really???) (Robert Kokai) who believe it is God's will to let the dead wipe out humanity. Well, Mercer get's infected, and a cure is provided by Dr. Moulsson (Bogdan Pecic), which has some pretty bad side effects. Also, you know Jones is evil because he wears sunglasses at night (DON'T MESS WITH A MAN IN SHADES!!!) I really don't want to rip on "The Dead Next Door." The whole thing took years to complete, was clearly a labor of love for those involved, and it's easy to see why it's such a cult favorite among horror fans. It's all done with loads of energy and enthusiasm, and not only did Sam Raimi help fund it, but Bruce Campbell serves as one of the dubbed voices! Plus, the gore effects are incredible considering the budget (about $75,000) and a decent D.I.Y. cheap synthesizers and drum machine score by Bookwalter himself. Ripping on the movie almost makes me feel bad.Alas, it's still not a good movie. The acting is all around terrible, and the script is poorly written, giving us uninteresting, unsympathetic and all around drab characters who make increasingly stupid decisions. Hell, Dr. Moulsson is a a really bland villain of sorts, basically playing the arrogant scientist cliché poorly. And what kind of scientist wears a trucker hat anyways? (there's a lot of bad "only in Ohio" fashions from the 80's here.) Jones by the way, is just another insane cult leader, and it really doesn't help that the cult themselves feel more like a mild inconvenience than a serious threat.And speaking of the cult, this brings up another problem-the whole movie is inconsistent. At one moment, the cult is going on and on about what they believe to be God's wrath, and the next they're sacrificing women while wearing black robes. Seriously, what kind of cult is this? Then there's the zombies. At one moment their shambling, then they are sprinting. And why is it that some can be killed via a bullet to the head or decapitation, and some can't? Finally, low-budget directors: please refrain from naming characters after well known directors and figures in horror. We get it, you love horror movies.Again, I really don't want to be hard on "The Dead Next Door." It's obviously made for beer and cigarettes money, and everyone involved clearly gave it their all for years. Sadly, it didn't do it for me in the end. All the enthusiasm and love for the horror genre in the world doesn't mean you can do a good horror movie.

Dave Williams (ghosthunter-3) I truly wanted to love this movie in a big way. I knew Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell were involved. I knew that it was hailed as a classic. But I did not know that while overall a good time, the movie has long stretches of DULL. I guess director JR Bookwalter, who shows great talent actually, is a fan of Romero, and this kind of has the same flaws as Romero's work. Brilliance surrounded by stretches of DULL. Some amusing gore effects and action keep things from being too slow and there is some minor suspense generated here, but the hype must have just ruined some of it for me. I recommend it though, for it's use of Super 8 film in a time when people always use video and for doing the zombies right.