Death Warmed Up |
Australia / New Zealand • 1984 • 82m •
   • Directed by: David Blyth. • Starring: Michael Hurst, Margaret Umbers, William Upjohn, Norelle Scott, David Letch, Geoff Snell, Gary Day, Bruno Lawrence, Ian Watkin, David Weatherley, Tina Grenville, Nathaniel Lees, Karam Hau. • Music by: Mark Nicholas.      A kid is hypnotized by a scientist to kill his parents and ends in a mental institution. As a grown up he returns to seek revenge over the scientist.
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Review:
The movie starts us off with a teenager going to see his father at a research centerhospital. He sees his father arguing with another man who has created a way to prolong lives. His father is against it saying that the experiments have not been full proof as some of the lab experiments have had side effects. The other scientist gets irate and begins to tell him that he will not ruin his dream. His son runs away from the room only to be caught by the doctor who advises the boy to take a shower. A very gay sequence ensues involving the doctor walking in on the boy staring at him for awhile and then sticking his bum with a needle that has some of his secret recipe in it.
We next see the boy with a shotgun in tow blasting his mother and father to death in their bedroom after a love session. The boy is institutionalized and apparently messed with during that time by the Doctor. 7 years pass and the doctor has been approved to do his experiments on a small island town where we see him drilling through some heads and putting a machine over them that apparently creates the mutation in their genes. They then flash forward to what they call "Now" which we know it is not now as the fashion sense screams 80's pastel easter colors. The young man has grown up and wants revenge so he is off to the island with 2 friends that do not suspect his revenge motive and the girlfriend who knows but does not tell anyone.
From here the movie begins to show some of the experimentees(is that a word) as one in particular tries to do in our foursome with his buddy in their bright yellow truck of doom. When that does not work they try motorcycles and that does not entirely work either...these guys are the Coyote to the foursomes Road Runner. Eventually they get inside the facility as all hell is breaking loose. You see some of the experimental patients have been locked away from everyone else as they have went loco which leads to a finale that looks like it was left open for a sequel that never happened.
So what did I think of it....uhh not much to write home about. It has some OK gore scenes here and there (exploding head, surgery sequences, etc) and the story would have been OK with alittle more fleshing out and more of a budget wouldn't have hurt either but there is some things that this movie just does not do right and it makes it fall to an unsatisfactory level. For one the movie tends to get boring, in the beginning even though the acting wasn't the best they had me but as the movie progresses it tends to become a labor of love as some of the sequences were just not good enough payoffs for me compared to the lulls in the middle act that really hurt this film.
As I watched this movie I couldn't help but see some slight comparisons to Island of Dr Moreau and Night of the Living Dead but that side of it never surfaces either or completely. The Doctor's character though we know is suppose to be mad is never fully fleshed out as much as they could have as again a lot of the middle act meanders around with the main character (played by Michael Hurst) and his friends running from madmen and getting captured for a brief moment. The finale really is lackluster also and really brought the movie down as well, it just seemed like they ran out of idea and ofted one of the main characters in a rather stupid way just to do it or because they had no more money to use I guess.
Really the movie isn't utterly bad its just not good either. I liked how some of the characters died but there was just not enough of it. All in all if you do not have nothing else better to watch you could do worse but there is also a lot better stuff you could be watching as well. With some OK gore and some weird 80's style I can only merit the lackluster score of: 410: Below Average, If you want to see a New Zealand Horror film see Dead Alive or Bad Taste (I know I know they are splatter comedies whatever) otherwise despite the cool VHS box cover (you know the one with the skeleton with a doctors mask on with the bloody words Death Warmed Up over top it) there really isn't too much cool about it.
Sidenote: check out the boat captain in the movie its none other than Ian Watkin aka Uncle Les from Dead Alive (aka Braindead) Death Warmed up has not received a Region 1 release however if you own a region and format free player there is a PAL release by Arrow (that looks like it was taken directly from a VHS transfer) that is out. So until next time if you see someone yelling it hurts and they have a giant pulsating goose egg on the side of there head please stand back 50 feet and do not try to help them unless you want to get brain all on yah!!! I'm Out!!
Review by ChiefGoreMongral from the Internet Movie Database.
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