Director – Sean Donohue (Naked Cannibal Campers, Die Die Delta Pi)
Starring – Jason Henne (Crazy Lake, Halloween at Aunt Ethel’s), Patrick Duncan Weston (The Lost Digit), and Joe Makowski (Amerikan Holokaust, Cannibal Claus)
Release Date – 2021
Rating – 3.5/5
I was an odd kid growing up but I’m sure most movie and horror fans can say something similar. My tastes in movies today comes from my love of Goosebumps and Shivers horror novels for kids, Are You Afraid of the Dark? and Eerie Indiana on television, and the films of John Waters, George A. Romero, and Quentin Tarantino. While most of my friends were not interested in the movies of Waters and Romero they did find value in Tarantino’s movies like I did. We would often watch Jackie Brown, Reservoir Dogs, and Pulp Fiction while a couple of my friends would smoke pot.
Pulp Fiction would be my favorite of the three but it would become extremely popular among my friends and over the next couple of years I would burn myself out on it. It has been damn near 20 years since I last watched the movie but I remember it vividly. A few weeks ago director Sean Donohue revealed that he had finished a film that was loosely based around the characters Zed and Maynard that was produced by Chris Leto of Reaper Films. I’m a fan of Donohue’s and was looking forward to checking it out Zed’s Dead when it was released. However, Sean surprised me yesterday when he hit me up with a link to review it. I couldn’t wait and I want to thank Sean for allowing me the opportunity to review the film before it’s release.
**Spoiler Alert** The film follows Z (Henne) and M (Weston) who live with their gimp. M owns a pawn shop while Z works as a security guard. The pair use M’s pawn shop as a way to get victims to rape, rob, and murder. **Spoiler Alert**
I like Donohue’s films. His eye for sleaze and blood makes for an always entertaining experience. He’s really upped his game the last year or so with films like Naked Cannibal Campers and Sushii’s Sex Seance. When he announced Zed’s Dead I was curious and confused. How in the fuck would he approach such a film and how would it look like a Donohue film? After watching it I can safely say this is right at home with the Gatorblade family. It’s bloody, sexy, and extremely fun. In fact, I could easily give this one another spin after I finished watching it for the first time. It’s that damn fun.
The acting in this one is pretty solid. Henne and Weston are great as Z and M. Weston doesn’t really look like Duane Whitaker aside from the beard but I really liked his performance. He really gets into character and does a fantastic job. Henne on the other hand. He doesn’t look like Peter Greene but god damn did he have his mannerisms down. His performance was pretty fucking intense at times and he absolutely nailed it. The supporting cast is just as solid. The characters are not as well written but they are mostly only introduced to be killed.
The story for this one is fucking wild but it does become a bit repetitive. Watching Z and M do their thing with their unsuspecting victims is fun. It brings out the sleazy side of the film along with the blood. It’s very fun in an exploitative manner. However, this bait and catch scenario is done into the ground a bit. The movie is barely over an hour long so it doesn’t feel like your time is wasted and watching these people die is highly entertaining but it is a bit of a bummer a little something else wasn’t added to it.
Finally, the film has plenty of blood and nudity. The film is character driven but Donohue knows his fan base all too well so he delivers on the blood and practical effects. Some of the effects work better than the others but the blood and nudity is great. Overall, Zed’s Dead answers the questions as to what happened to Zed according to Sean Donohue. I absolutely loved it and fans sleazy character driven exploitation flicks will really want to give this one a spin. Check it out if you can.
