DEAD DAD ** U.K. 2015 Dir: Lee Burgess 25 mins
Dead Dad was originally filmed in 2007-2008 as part of a collection of shorts to be combined into a feature film called Dreaming Of Screaming. This and two other shorts, torture flick Looking Good and a vampire film called Lady, were to play homage to Euro Horror filmmakers of the 70’s and 80’s. However it was thought that due to the pace of the different films it wasn’t going to work so writers John Ninnis and Lee Burgess (also the director) decided to keep the films separate.
This particular one was finally completed in February 2015 on a budget of £600 and was shot in Trelewis and Bedlinog in South Wales. Dead Dad is the story of Joe Turner, a recently widowed man who, whilst watching the local news his TV channel changes to a graveyard scene which turns him into a zombie. We are all familiar with Pontypool and the recent adaptation of Cell where contamination happens via music or mobile phones so if these are plausible then why not through the medium of TV too however far fetched it appears to be?! This recently deceased man is also a single dad to a toddler who he seems to still remember so goes about his fatherly duties as a zombie but is being harassed by a bumbling and awkward social worker who seems nice at first but grows suspicious of Joe’s recent changes and tries to take the child. Joe Turner is played by Chris James-Jones and he does an excellent job of zombieing, I am very impressed by his skills. The social worker is played by Kirk John Moore and is really quite odd and all over the place but is funny especially when planning his actions by talking rather loudly into a brick sized Dictaphone and then discovering a one armed zombie in the shed. There is also a separate story going on with the female news reporter from the local TV channel who is great at not taking herself too seriously! The make up is adequate but a few to many close ups don’t really help to do it justice. The kid isn’t in it much but there is an endearing scene with his zombie dad which is quite sweet, if you like that kind of thing, if you don’t then there are a few nods to the zombie greats. The best thing about this short is the music. The score is written and performed by Yorgos Pangagiotopoulos (I really hope this is their real name!) and it is fantastic! The synth and the reverb really help create the classic 80’s zombie movie sound; there is also a brilliant scene of our zombie dad driving off in his car to hunt victims with a hilarious tune reminiscent of Benny Hill! In conclusion this is a pretty good tribute to the great 80’s zombie B-movies right down to the dodgy acting!
This particular one was finally completed in February 2015 on a budget of £600 and was shot in Trelewis and Bedlinog in South Wales. Dead Dad is the story of Joe Turner, a recently widowed man who, whilst watching the local news his TV channel changes to a graveyard scene which turns him into a zombie. We are all familiar with Pontypool and the recent adaptation of Cell where contamination happens via music or mobile phones so if these are plausible then why not through the medium of TV too however far fetched it appears to be?! This recently deceased man is also a single dad to a toddler who he seems to still remember so goes about his fatherly duties as a zombie but is being harassed by a bumbling and awkward social worker who seems nice at first but grows suspicious of Joe’s recent changes and tries to take the child. Joe Turner is played by Chris James-Jones and he does an excellent job of zombieing, I am very impressed by his skills. The social worker is played by Kirk John Moore and is really quite odd and all over the place but is funny especially when planning his actions by talking rather loudly into a brick sized Dictaphone and then discovering a one armed zombie in the shed. There is also a separate story going on with the female news reporter from the local TV channel who is great at not taking herself too seriously! The make up is adequate but a few to many close ups don’t really help to do it justice. The kid isn’t in it much but there is an endearing scene with his zombie dad which is quite sweet, if you like that kind of thing, if you don’t then there are a few nods to the zombie greats. The best thing about this short is the music. The score is written and performed by Yorgos Pangagiotopoulos (I really hope this is their real name!) and it is fantastic! The synth and the reverb really help create the classic 80’s zombie movie sound; there is also a brilliant scene of our zombie dad driving off in his car to hunt victims with a hilarious tune reminiscent of Benny Hill! In conclusion this is a pretty good tribute to the great 80’s zombie B-movies right down to the dodgy acting!
Review by Sarah Budd
You can check out DEAD DAD via the links below: