The October Zombie-Thon! - Day 21: Hood of the Living Dead
Posted by Trevor Snyder on 10.21.2007
Between this and Zombiez, I'm really rethinking this whole "urban horror" genre...
HOOD OF THE LIVING DEAD (2005)
Written & Directed by: Ed & Jose Quiroz
Country: USA
I have two nice things to say about Hood of the Living Dead. Are you ready? Here goes:
1) It's tagline – "This time, not even the boys in da hood can stop them" – is kinda funny.
2) It's not as bad as Zombiez.
I realize that's not exactly high praise or anything, but it's really all I've got. There's just not really much more to say about a film so exceptionally tiresome. Hood of the Living Dead simply coasts along on its own premise, content to just play things out in pretty much the exact fashion you would expect from the very first scene. You never get the sense the filmmakers, writing/directing brother team of Ed & Jose Quiroz, put even the slightest effort into making this thing special. This is a paint-by-numbers affair, all the way.
The film tells the story of two brothers, Ricky and Jermaine, living in Oakland, California. Of the two, Jermaine is the hot-headed troublemaker, and seems to be quite happy to stay in Oakland and hang out with his buddies. The more straitlaced Ricky, who has been taking care of Jermaine ever since their parents death, wants nothing more than to get he and his brother the hell out of there, and has taken a steady job at a medical research facility in order to raise the money to do so.
Ricky's dreams of one day leaving the hood take an unexpected hit, however, when Jermaine is killed in a drive-by shooting. A grief-stricken and in-shock Ricky, bypassing the usual route of calling 911, instead calls his friend and co-worker Scott, and asks him to rush over with samples of the very same formula they have been working on at the facility. Wouldn't you know it – it's a regenerative formula, only tested on animals so far. But Ricky believes it might serve as a miracle cure for his brother's sudden case of death. It never once enters Ricky or Scott's heads that it could instead turn Jermaine into a flesh-munching maniac, presumably because they're not aware they're in a movie called Hood of the Living Dead.
I, on the other hand, was fully aware I was watching a movie called Hood of the Living Dead, and so was not the least bit surprised that the rest of the film contained nothing more than scene after scene of our two regretful heroes driving around the city and trying to clean up the mess they've created, by finding and eliminating Jermaine and any other zombies he may have created in the meantime. Eventually, they are joined in their mission by a couple of Jermaine's friends, their boss from the research facility, and a gun-toting mercenary by the name of…ugh…"Romero." We really need to put an end to low-budget zombie flicks naming characters "Romero." It's no longer funny, or clever. It's just obvious and pathetic.
Here's the main problem with Hood of the Living Dead (not the only problem, but the main one). The idea of a bunch of tough-talking Oakland gang members squaring off against the living dead is actually not too bad. In fact, it's an idea just rife with comic potential. I would love to see a gory, outrageous comedy with the same basic concept. Unfortunately, this isn't that movie.
Instead, The Quiroz Brothers play almost everything deadly straight…which in turn makes everything deadly boring. With its meager budget, terrible acting, and lack of any decent gore effects, Hood simply can't afford to rely on actually trying to scare or unnerve its audience. And yet, apparently, that's what the Quiroz's were going for here. Did they honestly expect anyone to find this stuff frightening? Hell, did they actually expect anyone to find it even remotely interesting? This is another case where I can only assume the target audience is people who have never before seen any other zombie films, as they're the only folks who would find anything in this film to be the least bit original or surprising.
Does it have its positives? Sure. For instance, I like one character's response when another tells him to scream if he sees any zombies – "Oh, I will." And I also appreciate that this is one of the few living dead films I've seen where the characters immediately think to shoot the monsters in the heads, thanks to their knowledge of zombie movies (why do almost all other zombie flicks take place in a universe where no one has heard of zombies?).
Unfortunately, those were pretty much the only things I liked about it. Well, that's not true – it did provide an interesting experiment for me. My DVD player, like many others, features multiple fast-forward speeds. I found that while watching Hood of the Living Dead on the first, slightly sped-up setting, the film's pacing and action almost began to resemble that of a normal movie. Trust me, try it at home…it's fun!
Other than that, the film is kind of a non-stop cavalcade of dullness, complete with some very questionable decisions in both the scripting and directing departments. Why introduce a bad-ass mercenary character, only to take him out of the picture almost immediately? Even worse, why include a lengthy scene of Ricky just driving around? Oh, wait, I know this one: apparently just so they can play a rap song from the soundtrack – in its entirety – over the footage. Hey, guys, this is a movie, not a music video.
At the end of the day, Hood of the Living Dead is not a horrid, unwatchable mess, as is the case with many of its low-budget peers. But it has absolutely nothing to set it apart, either. The Quiroz Brothers have already made their fair share of low-budget films, and in that time have developed at least the slightest smidge of talent. But judging by this film they have yet to discover how to apply it to making a movie worth spending time on. You can't get by on concept alone, which is what Hood seems to want to do. Watching Hood of the Living Dead, I never really felt that the Quiroz Brothers' hearts were in it. At least, I hope that's the case. Because if their best effort at making a zombie movie - a genre where films are often incredibly fun in spite of their shortcomings – is this dull....well, they might just want to pack it in right now.
