Movie Reveiw: RetarDEAD

The second film from filmmakers Dan West and Rick Popko is very special horror/comedy called RETARDEAD. This is their followup film to MONSTURD (see my review a few posts down) and I think the title RETARDEAD pretty much speaks for itself! The plot involves the evil Dr. Stern, back to wreak havoc on the poor citizens of Butte County. This time, Dr. Stern has created an "intelligence serum" that can make the most simple minded people turn into geniuses. So naturally, Dr. Stern gets a job at the Butte County School for Special Education to test his serum on his unsuspecting students. At first, everything is going great, but there is one problem with Dr. Sterns serum....after a while the people who have used the serum turn in flesh eating zombies!! The zombie make up is just ok..mainly just people painted blue, although some they use for closeups have a little better zombie makeup to look more zombified (is that a work or did I just make that up?). Some of the gore/special effects are quite impressive. There are quite a few deaths by people getting their intestines ripped from their bodies by the retardead zombies. Obviously played to be so over the top that it gets a laugh, it serves its purpose. There is a ridiculous amount of blood (red paint?) spilled and sprayed over everything in this film.

While talking to Dan and Rick last weekend, they told me the budget for MONSTURD was around $3000 and the budget for RETARDEAD was around $15,000. You can really see the difference in these two films, in terms of effects mainly. If they keep going at this rate, I can't wait until their next film!! ("Dawn of the Retardead" maybe?). Once again, if you are fans of the Troma films, then you will love RETARDEAD!

Click HERE to watch the trailer!