It suffers from all the same problems as most 80s horror movies. The acting’s dogshit, technically it’s very clunky and the character work/dialogue feel amateurish. However, while most of those other horror movies quickly move past their obvious weaknesses to focus on the strengths, that’s not so much the case here. The first 50 minutes are an uninspired slog that have no idea how to engage the audience. It keeps cutting back and forth between two sets of characters, neither of which present fun or refreshing ideas. However, after that boring first half it starts compensating by turning into a campy version of _Night of the Living Dead_, which is definitely more fun. If I’d compare it to _Evil Dead 2_ or _Braindead_ I wish it’d gone harder though, because this is nowhere near as memorable due to a lack of bold direction. Having someone like Sam Raimi or Peter Jackson could’ve made this more visually interesting and tonally consistent. What O’Bannon delivers here isn’t up to snuff; the heads of actors are sometimes cut off from the frame, it often feels cheap in the wrong places (flat lighting; ugly sets), the score is awful and the tone jumps around between serious/emotional and camp without a sense of balance. I don’t entirely get why this is still in conversation when we already have some of those other movies I mentioned throughout my review. This doesn’t bring anything specific to the table anymore that hasn’t been done way better somewhere else.

3.5/10