Review: Thr33 Days Dead

So, this is it. The docu-series “Town of the Living Dead” has finished its episodic run on the SyFy Network. The “reality” television show featured independent filmmakers in Jasper, Alabama as they try to produce their very own zombie movie. The show was absolutely dreadful, and absolutely staged, so I stopped tuning in after the episode that featured an appearance from A Nightmare on Elm Street’s Robert England. Here’s hoping that the film they produced, Thr33 Days Dead, is better than its predecessor. I, however, have little to no hope of that…

Thr33 Days Dead is written and directed by John M. Ware. Cast members include Bryan Boylen, Gary A. Carreker, Chase Lawrence, Andrew Hankinson (WWE’s Luke Gallows), Ben Farley, Catherine Teeter, Bill Norris, John M. Ware, and Michael Haygood.

“Childhood friends Patrick, Jeff, and Justin must escape the lake after their day of fishing is ruined by the discovery that zombies are in their midst. They escape to the city only to find that it too has been overtaken by these flesh hungry creatures. Along the way they meet the brother/sister duo of Pete and Valerie, and together they fight for their right to survive in a world that is no longer their own.”

Well, I can say that the movie starts off with a bang. A couple of cast members are fighting a herd of zombies outside the lake-house featured so frequently in “Town of the Living Dead.” It ends with a cliffhanger of sorts that’s never resolved…because I didn’t care enough to make it to the end of the movie. There wasn’t enough draw to any character to invest my time and emotion in them, and the zombies were subpar. In a world where a zombie movie is a time a dozen now because of “The Walking Dead,” you really need to up the quality of your ravenous monsters to captivate viewers. After about the first hour, Thr33 Days Dead became relegated to the background noise in the room as I worked on other HorrorSociety articles.

True to what I expected, Thr33 Days Dead was severely flawed from a production standpoint. I support everyone who wants to make short films or feature length pictures, I really do, hence why I work at website for independent horror films. The problem with this is, you need to start somewhere small. You need to learn. You need to make mistakes before you tackle something as big as a full length zombie movie. You can’t just pick up a camera and say, “I am a director now!” You need to make a few crappy movies (like this) before you try something on such a large scale. A lot of people think making a movie is so easy – just pointing the camera and hitting record – but there is a lot of work and education that needs to go into it. The lighting that’s all over the place, wobbly camera angles, scoring that was made on a child’s keyboard, and everything else that was wrong here could have been avoided.

The only praises I can give Thr33 Days Dead are… (1) They had a very impressive turnout for extras. It almost seemed like they had an unlimited supply. (2) The majority of the locations they filmed at were beautiful to look at. Of course, you need more than that to sell a scene. (3) The special effects looked better on camera than I expected them to based on what I saw in the first couple episodes of “Town of the Living Dead.” But that’s it. Those are the only positives I have to offer here…

Look, I applaud the SyFy Network for giving so much publicity and attention to a very independent film. The dedication from a major network to such a small production is almost unheard of. From the television show, to kicking in a couple bucks to help finance, and even SHOWING a z-grade INDEPENDENT MOVIE on a MAJOR NETWORK… SyFy should really be applauded for their effort. However, when you see a feature film that’s taken 3+ years to get made and it comes out like this… Maybe looking for a better product to invest in would be more worthwhile. Rating this one a 4 out of 10. Dead on arrival… 3+ years later.