Wow! Such a good movie.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

And there's your hook, it was the crazy Christian nut-job that brought about the supernatural angle when she cursed the poor innocent toddler with the force of her demented religious fervour - it's brilliant! Well no I can't lie, it's not, but it does fit the surreal tone of this picture, come on! Okay, so Rise of the Dead is a very low-grade and poor quality film, that's a given, but to me it's nowhere near dreadful. Budget constraints should be pretty obvious to anyone who watches the opening scene only, but when you consider what it had going against it budget-wise, and how it was made in the mid-2000's, the final result in my opinion isn't all that terrible. In its own modest and well-intentioned way I even find it a little sweet and endearing. It wears its flaws so honestly that I can't help but forgive them. Other 'better' low-budget horror movies that try to hard to hide all the shortcomings and have still looked cheaper and had much worse acting are a lot more intolerable than this. And for what they were the performances in this were hardly awful, I had no problem at all where the acting was concerned. I thought both lead characters were good, Stephen Seidel was so damn cute and managed to make his possessed act different then everyone else's at the end, and according to him when I communicated with him on his Youtube channel they had a blast making it. And Erin Wilk who I thought was very natural and cool also spoke on the commentary track of how everybody got along and got into a fun groove on the 22 day shoot and I can believe it, there is a kind of basic energy and enthusiasm to this movie. I think sometimes when there's a positive and productive atmosphere behind the making of a film it can translate a bit onto the final work, and it was nice to see some actors who weren't just going through the motions, but were trying to pull it all together. I love the downbeat tone and small-town feel of it, and also how it's actually so short that it's not even movie-length and seems more like an extended TV episode or something, it's a very quick watch and easy to get into. Of course I wish it could have gone on longer and had more much-needed development of its thin story, but it's very well-balanced and compact the way it is - it's slow and never exactly gets going all that much, but I really enjoy it, I find it a very watchable and compelling ghost horror story, and one that even shows a little originality at points. Specifically the unsettling and outrageous finale which depending on your point of view, features both male rape and paranormal incest! And I liked that scene, I thought it was daring and maybe even a little controversial. And rather than concentrating on the more perverse implications of the scene, I found it almost tender and quite moving, to me.. It's creepy and weird yes, but it does make sense for the story and provides a satisfying conclusion. The movie really should have been named "Ghost Baby", which is a little lame, but in the story only one dead person does indeed rise, and although the way the possessed act is very zombie-like, they're definitely not the undead and no more than one person ever becomes a murderous babbling fiend at a time. So ya know, don't go into this expecting a zombie picture and just try and like it for what it is, cos lord knows there's freaking legions of them out there, and many of them are of a far worse quality than this one is. It ain't brilliant or really anything close, but I think it's a decent, strong example of what can be done in terms of mood if nothing else, on an extremely low budget. All in all this twisted tale of the angry soul of a lost child who wants nothing more than to be with his mother is an interesting and different horror movie that's deserving of a little more respect and consideration than what it ended up with. Cheers, bye-bye!

Rise of the Dead is set in the small town of Dudley in Ohio where Laura Childs (Erin Wilk) works as a waitress, while walking home by herself one night Laura is attacked by respectable lawyer Sam Fulton (Jason Madera) but Laura's boyfriend Jack Walther (Stephen Seidel) manages to save her by running Sam over. Laura is shaken but not badly hurt although she has no idea why Sam would try to kill her, a question that local Sheriff Brown (Peter Blitzer) has the task of answering. Then soon after Laura's best friend & house-mate Amber (Jaime Whitlock) also tries to kill her without any sort of reason & again Jack comes to Laura's rescue & in a struggle Amber is stabbed & killed. Something definitely is going on, Laura discovers that a woman named Sally Sherman (Brooke Delaney) killed her husband & that they had both adopted Laura's baby & that the common link is Laura & her baby which she gave up. Laura becomes convinced that her baby has been possessing people in order to kill those responsible for it's misery & ultimate death...Directed by William Wedig this was originally filmed under the title Tantrum which was then changed to the more horror sounding Rise of the Dead when brought by the company that eventually released it, the title Rise of the Dead gives the impression that this will be some sort of apocalyptic zombie film in the vein of one of George A. Romero's efforts but Rise of the Dead is in fact much more low key than that & is more of a supernatural ghost story as much a flesh eating zombie film. To be fair to Rise of the Dead it only lasts 72 minutes (including opening & closing credits) so at least it's short, unfortunately that's pretty much where the positives end. The story is an audacious one, the dead spirit of a young child starts possessing people in order to kill those that let him down & led to his untimely death by handgun, for some strange reason Laura is the only person in the town of Dudley who can defend herself since no-one else the kid goes after puts up any sort of fight whatsoever & while I was sat there watching this I was wondering to myself why doesn't it just possess Laura & then make her commit suicide? There are no rules, the kid seems able to possess anyone whenever it wants for no apparent reason, no explanation is ever given & the ending has to be seen to be believed. In order to stop the kid no killing her while in her boyfriend Jack's body & therefore not having to kill him Laura seduces her kid & has sex with him which leads to a so-called twist ending where laura is seen to be pregnant, I didn't know whether to laugh or be repulsed to be honest. With such a short duration there's no time to flesh the story out & all of the character's really are very basic one dimensional nobodies that leave no impact, the story is nothing more than random incidents strung together & the lack of any zombie action will surely disappoint many.Obviously shot on an ultra low budget Rise of the Dead looks like it was, the video camcorder look, the drab colours, the lifeless cinematography & basic music. All the locations seem to be people's house's & the special effects are no more elaborate than a bit of fake blood splashed around. There are no special effects to speak of, no CGI or traditional effects work. There's no tension or atmosphere, the script never sets up any rules or limits & as such everything feels rather random.Apparently filmed in Ohio & Connecticut the production values are rock bottom. The acting isn't much better from a cast of unknown's, what else can I say?Rise of the Dead had the potential to be a decent supernatural possession revenge horror exploitation flick but isn't, it's bad in every aspect. Do yourself a favour & give this one a miss.

This movie is pretty disappointing. I gave it a 4 star just because it was funny when it wasn't really supposed to be. I barely gave it a 4 star considering I thought I was going to watch a zombie movie, not a movie about some women who seems to be chased by people who are getting possessed by her dead son. It was mostly funny due to the sub-par acting, the obvious plot motifs (ie. a girl getting naked and promptly murdered with her breasts out) and corny death scenes. Most of the death scenes were nowhere near realistic, and there was some blur effect they did with a few of the possessed that came off really cheesy. There was also some white balance issues I noticed really early in the movie. I also found the end of the movie to be rather confusing, and sorta disturbing. It appeared like she was having sex with her boyfriend at the end, while he was possessed with her child. Not only that but she was talking to him as if he was her child while they were having sex, strange, I'm sure Freud would have a few things to say about that. Regardless, I didn't understand that at all, ha ha it totally was a "wtf" moment for me. All in all, It was a decent effort but I can't find it in myself to give it anything more than a 4 star mostly because: 1.) I was upset about how I seemed to be deceived by the title and 2.) It came across as INCREDIBLY LOW BUDGET which, even if it is, you should try to avoid that in my opinion (I mean 28 days later was made on a really low budget also, but that was amazing).

Titles can be so misleading, but I for one, was glad that "Rise Of The Dead" was not just another low budget zombie flick, but instead a well thought out horror experience from Ohio.Director William Wedig piles on the dread factor that the writing team of Jeff and Josh Crook have layed out for him in this seemingly no budget film about possession and things that go "Thud" in the night... Most films with the words "Of the Dead" in the title means: "Zombie" but Wedig has something else in store for his unknowing audience. This is a well crafted, though provoking, blood bath of a film with solid acting and cinematography through out. Stand out performances by Erin Wilk and a rather comedic turn by producer / actor Chris Ferry make "Rise Of The Dead" a worth while viewing pleasure for fans of the genre. The story itself, paints a vivid picture of how bad things happen to bad people, but does it with a flair not normally explored in this type of film. The gore is honorable, and of course the nudity is always present to reel in even the most frigid viewer. "Rise Of The Dead" is a sign of good things to come from Ohio, and the future of horror in general.