[Lights Camera Dead]
Plot:So you want to make a movie. You tell yourself time and time again, "I can write, direct, produce, star in, and edit. All I need is 4 "B" actors, 20 gallons of red paint and a monkey to work the fog machine. But what if their lives get in the way: meaningless jobs, families and bitch girlfriends? What if the actors laugh take after take and waste valuable time discussing other movies? Could you edit something together? What if your writers' main concerns are creating characters and dialogue that have depth? People aren't going to be listening to what's being said. They want to see a pair of tits tied to a tree. How can you make them understand the importance of completing your film? And what if everyone walks out on you? How far are you willing to go to finish your movie?

Cast:Wes Reid, Amy Lollo, J.C. Lira, Monica Moehring, Coldon Martin.

My Thoughts:One of the few horror movies about the filming of a horror movie that's actually tolerable.

Review:Everytime someone decides to make a horror movie about the filming of a horror movie, the movie more than often turns out to be a total waste of time, and celluloid. But not surprisingly, that changes when someone with a different sort of vision and approach to the picture decides to take on the job. Indie filmmaker Tim Reaper brings us his low-budgeteer horror pic "Lights, Camera, Dead". A film about two filmmakers named Ryan (Reid), and Steven (Lira), who are trying to make their own badass indie, low budget, horror feature.

As usual, the production is hampered by the typical issues. Such as the inability to find halfway decent actors, difficult crew members, and creative differences between director and writer. But Ryan eventually manages to scrape together somewhat decent actors for his film which is one of those occult-ceremony-gone-horribly-wrong deals, but on one night of shooting...a blow up between Ryan, and his lead actress/girlfriend Kari (Lollo), leads to pretty much everyone walking off of the production. Now...Ryan and Stephen are left with half a film, which needs to be completed.

After meeting with an editor, a meeting which goes horribly wrong...they decide to get the film finished by any means necessary...the key word being "any". "Lights, Camera, Dead" really captures the headaches of making an indie horror feature, at the same time though...not going overboard with the comedic parts. This is what keeps the movie centered for the most part. "Brutal Massacre" for example, another indie release which hit DVD last year, pretty much had the same gist. Shooting on an indie horror film commencing, and the craziness which ensues during the production.

Only difference between that film and "LCD"...is that "BM" wasn't funny, and was quite intolerable...despite it's more seasoned cast which included Elle Sandweiss, Ken Foree, and others. Director Reaper, who also wrote the film...really does an excellent job with not only bringing the blood and gore into the movie at the rights moments and points in time, but also making the characters likeable, entertaining, and funny when they need to be. This makes the movie work, and also helps the viewer to ignore mostly...the ultra low production values. As a matter of fact, the low production values in this movie actually kind of give it a more 80's retro/homely feel.

It kind of reminded me of one of those movies I'd see on channel 55 or ABC 7 back when I was 16, and it was a late Saturday or Friday night. It's low budget, but in a good way...not in an embarassing, laughable, or sad way. The actors play their roles pretty well, especially Reid who plays increasingly disgruntled filmmaker Ryan Black with a certain hint of class and likeableness. While the characters mood swings and changing personality as the production becomes increasingly more difficult, comes off more as funny and entertaining...instead of extremely prickish or evil.

Lollo and Lira also play their roles really well, with Lira adding the comical sidekick element to the movie and it's main character Ryan, and Lira adding some nice eye candy and also giving the movie a heart of sorts, approaching alot of the material from a female perspective. Most of the movies best moments come at the very beginning, where Ryan and his girlfriend are holding auditions for actors for the movie, and what transpires is a pretty hilarious number of scenes.

There's also another quite funny scene where Ryan and Steven are discussing scoring the film with a man who pretty much is clueless on how to score a horror movie. But the third act of the movie is really it's gold standard, because that's when the horror elements kick into high gear and really take over for the films final 25 to 30 minutes. Amounting to what is not only an exciting and suspense-filled finale, but also a pretty well-written one considering how the final scene acts as one big yet clever twist.

Although someone over-the-top silly at times, and late on pushing the blood and gore onto the screen..."Lights, Camera, Dead" is a good indie horror film which manages to entertain in alot smarter and clever ways than most movies who's focal point is the production of a horror film...and the difficulties and eventual bloodshed that accompany it.

Positives:Good, smart, clever script, likeable characters, modest entertainment value, nicely retro look and tone, great twist ending.

Negatives:Every now and then, the comedy goes over the top, and it takes somewhat too long to get gory and bloody.

Overall:Three out of four stars.





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