Dead Kansas (2012)

DEAD KANSAS is a very low budget science fiction horror movie with a post-apocalyptic setting. It was originally released as a series of web episodes which gives the story an episodic feel. Unfortunately, as with most independent fare being made today, the whole thing is too cheap to be taken seriously. The worst thing about the extended filming schedule is that the lead actress changes around the halfway mark, which is pretty much unforgivable in a production like this. Me, I would have given up with it, but instead they recast and soldier on.The good news is that the second actress is better than the first. Otherwise, we're in a world which attempts to mix Romero-style zombie horror with some MAD MAX-style criminal gangs. None of it is very convincing or indeed credible. The performances vary by cast member. It's not the worst film I've seen, but very far from the best.

I recently got a private message from someone asking if they'd seen their film DEAD KANSAS , "it is the first zombie film to use Point Of View (POV) zombies - in other words, the camera is the "zombie's eye" in some scenes." . Actually this isn't true because a while ago I saw a short film featuring a zombie apocalypse where a human witnesses a zombie attack , gets bitten and they become a zombie where the human beings are now the antagonists , the title of which escapes me .Nevertheless I wrote back I'd be happy to review though warned my reviews are always honest . Unfortunately I've got to keep to my word and say I did not like DK one bit I noticed there's a large number of external reviews from other sites and the vast majority of them seem rather kind , possibly because they don't want to upset the feelings of someone who has gone to the time and trouble of politely asking reviewers to take a look at their movie . It's obviously a project made out of love and hopefully the crew had a lot of fun making because as a neutral viewer I didn't have much fun watching it . The budget is non existent which isn't a criticism but this means you've got to cast mainly amateurs in key roles and they're just not good enough to carry the film . In fact in one bizarre segment the female lead turns in to a completely different actress reinforcing this is some modern day Ed Wood type production . This puzzled me so much that I had to check the trivia section to find out what was going on and found out several interesting things about DK . One is that it was originally envisaged as a short film , then blossomed in to a web series and eventually got re-edited in a near feature length film . The filming took place over a period of months which along with the lack of budget explains its disjointed car crash like quality . I hope I haven't reduced to tears the production member who asked me to review their film but I'm afraid I didn't like it . Sorry and please don't hate me .

I love a Grindhouse movie and this one is close enough to grind house to really like. Joe McQueen does a great job and the rest of the cast is really great to. I would watch it over and over! Really love how they did the zombie thing. It gives a whole new approach for zombie apocalypse movies. Can't wait to see what Aaron Carter is gonna do next. Would really love to see him team up with someone and make a grind house set. I know it would be awesome! Zombie movies done right. Give it a chance and watch it. Don't just knock before you watch. It's B rate but at it's finest. If you like a good B rate movie and grind house movies. Then you will like this one.

I picked up a DVD copy of Dead Kansas last year because I noticed Irwin Keyes was in it. And I popped it on this weekend after the announcement that he passed away a few days ago. Unfortunately, Irwin's part is so miniscule, it's hardly worth mentioning. It's too bad, really, because he'd have been a far more interesting character to follow than most of the amateur leads.I say "most" because Joe McQueen (the actor who plays "Skinny") is actually quite good and very watchable. Unfortunately, that can't be said about the rest of the main cast, especially in regards to the poorly scripted lead role: Emma. (Note: this character was played by two separate actresses, due to a prolonged shooting schedule brought on by obvious budgetary limitations. It's quite clear that production lurched along in fits and starts, with shooting commencing only when money and scheduling allowed. It should be a surprise to no one that such a disjointed approach to filmmaking would result in a sloppy and inconsistent final product.)Still, I watch no-budget, regional horror not because I expect perfection, but rather because it's always great to stumble upon some unseen diamond in the rough. A good idea or an interesting concept can often transcend the limitations of an amateur cast and crew, or a non-existent budget. (See the works of Richard Griffin, The Zellner Brothers, Adam Wingard, Mark Leake, Zachary Hadden, Kristian Day, Damon Packard, Adam Cooley, Ryan Trecartin, or any number of others doing interesting work with no money.) And, to be fair, the concept behind Dead Kansas does work to a point. Essentially, this is a post-apocalyptic zombie movie loosely structured around a Wizard of Oz story template: A young girl must leave her Kansas farm after a tornado (and a zombie bite) leaves her father injured. She takes to the road with a ragtag group of friends in the hopes of finding a doctor who can help her father.Unfortunately, the Wizard of Oz elements are merely surface deep. So the idea collapses under the weight of a poor script that barely succeeds at delivering the most basic elements of screen writing 101: Plot, Character, Dialogue. (And utterly fails at the more complicated elements of screen writing and storytelling such as Pacing, Conflict, Theme, etc.) And therein lies the film's most crippling problem. It's just not a very good story. Characters barely serve the needs of their badly scripted scenes, let alone the rest of the plot or larger picture. I did enjoy one aspect of the ending, but frankly because I'd given up hope in a fully realized concept by that point and was surprised to see ONE obvious (but oh-so welcomed) story resolution.There are other problems with Dead Kansas beyond the bad writing, amateur acting and choppy filmmaking... the sound mix is uneven, the editing and camera angles are poor, and the low budget doesn't allow for many effect shots at all (so you can forget about seeing the zombies, kills, the tornado, and most of the "action")... but honestly, all of that could be forgiven if the script was better.I wish director Aaron K. Carter the best and I sincerely hope his future efforts benefit from the lessons he learned and the mistakes he made with this one. I'd even watch a sequel to Dead Kansas if it ever happens. But I do hope he works on his screen writing and scrapes up a little bit of money to put a better production together before rolling camera. And I really hope he manages to put his stronger cast front and center, and retires the amateurs to the supporting roles next time.