Hard working actor, director, producer, and writer Donald Farmer has tucked 22 films under his belt in a little over a decade. In this respect, he shares an affinity with his cinematic brethren, Edward D. Wood, Junior. However, there is a staunch difference between the filmmakers: Whereas Wood tried to make great features and failed, Farmer’s aesthetic credo seems to be “Good Enough.” What does a film made under said philosophy entail? Well, at the risk of being curt, there is a term in the genre for what Farmer’s latest production, Dorm of the Dead, is: Kids with cameras. And with this, the audience gets nothing more and, well, a lot less.
The emaciated plotline involves petty, playground-level jealousy between two sets of females, none of which are worthy of mention. The “crux” of the story involves Set A stealing a sample of zombie blood (don’t ask) and infecting one of Set B. What results (you might not be asking)? A zombie . . . well, epidemic seems to be a bit too gracious given the budget.
To be honest, the only thing which separates Dorm of the Dead and greatness is acting, script, budget, editing, special effects, direction, and cinematography . . . but it does have the whole soundtrack area covered. As blood ejaculates before a victim is bitten and wind battles for center stage while actors are mutedly conversing in a cemetery, someone mumbles, “Somebody’s been watching too many crappy movies.”
Now, I would initially highlight and mock the irony of the line but, given what I have come to understand, the amateur-to-the-point-of-unwatchable, nitty gritty piece of horror schlock has a following. Granted, I try to accommodate up-and-coming directors in a subverted genre but, even with this, I find myself struggling to give Dorm of the Dead benefit of the doubt even within its own perimeters for, unlike a Troma production which knows how and when to be bad, Farmer’s work seems to be setting the bar where it can comfortably meet its mediocre agenda with little hassle–which does little service to the viewer.
Perhaps the opening, which threatens to be horror porn incarnate wherein the inadvertent lessons follow that if a guy beats his girlfriend’s lesbian lover, he will suffer the slings and arrows of zombie bites, atop the note that, ladies, if you leave your man high-and-dry, he may well unknowingly (thinking with the wrong head, again) accost a zombie slut, is a bit premature in that, nothing coincidentally aligns itself into a smidgeon of interest for the remaining 80 some odd minutes. As the youngest Dean in history waltzes out of “da club” before receiving a call on his cell from a student requesting . . . justification for her suspension(!), we learn that a medical school prof. wears his lab coat at all times, including coital sessions. I could go on, but I’d rather not revisit Donald Farmer’s Dorm of the Dead any more than I have to and suggest you do the same.
-Egregious Gurnow
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
