Anchor Bay's release of the film, The Dead Next Door, is a nice offering for any of you zombie fans. It's a decent release of a film I'd not even heard of, until my brother gave me the DVD.

The Dead Next Door appears to be an homage film, to all those classic zmobie films we've come to know and love over the years. It's easy to see that director; J.R. Bookwalter has been not only a fan of the classic zombie films, but also a student of what makes these films so popular.

The basic synopsis of, The Dead Next Door, is that zombies have taken over the country and what's left of the government has decided to send out heavily-armed squads to destroy the zombies. We have a scientist that feels if given the opportunity and the records of a fellow scientist that started this outbreak of zombies, he can develop a serum that may put a hasty end to the zombies. The scientist that caused the outbreak has his lab in Akron, Ohio which is where a religious-cult is also based. This cult believes the zombies are God's punishment for the sins of mankind and they don't plan on letting anyone put an end to the zombie population. The religious cult even manages to get their hands on a partially infected soldier and this prompts the soldiers sent to obtain the records needed for the serum to plan a rescue of their commrade.

Now, this is a relatively short film, clocking in under 80 minutes, but those 80 minutes move at a pretty good clip. No character development, here, but plenty of blood, guts and gore with a sprinkle of humor to boot. Bookwalter is such a fan of the zombie films that came before his, he names many of the characters after horror legends and I think one of the characters sounds a lot like, Bruce Campbell, but if you can not be annoyed by that very loud homage to horror legends, chances are, you'll enjoy the film.

Personally, I was rather surprised to find I did enjoy the film. I do enjoy zombie films and I am going into more modern horror efforts of any sub-genre with an open mind, but I must admit, I held little hope for enjoying this film. This film isn't as great as some of the films it was inspired by, but it sure doesn't disappoint, either.

Something unique about this offering is, it was shot on Super 8! I've been told that if you have a huge widescreen HDTV, this may not be the DVD to show off that setup, but for my humble setup and eyes, it sure looks nice. The picture does appear rather dark at times, but not to the point that you can't make out what's happening and the picture has a 'soft' look with colors fading in and out from time to time, but as I said, it's certainly not a horrible print and is good enough that I certainly enjoyed the film.

Now, the bonus features are a nice surprise and plentiful, too. Director Bookwalter, actor Michael Todd and cinematographer Michael Tolochko all sit in for a very humorous commentary, they laugh their way through most of it, in between offering some insight to the film, itself. There's behind the scenes footage that Bookwalter comments on as well as talks on some deleted scenes, too! There's storyboard photos, test footage and cast members and others trying out for the role of zombies. Plenty of interviews and some of the cast together at Frightvision 2000 discussing the making of the film as well as offering their own favorite horror films. Also in the bonus features is a music video by, Three Miles Out and tons of stills. Be nice if all DVDs were packed with this much in the way of bonus features!

If you're in the market for a short, but fast-paced film with plenty of gore and a bit of humor mixed in, then this is a film you might want to check out. It's certainly affordable enough and I doubt any zombie/gore hound will walk away feeling robbed of 78 minutes of their life.

Buy The Dead Next Door on DVD at Amazon.com