while we get bombarded with plenty of low budget junk it seems we can still miss something with real genius in it. This is one of the missed ones it seems. Well acted, well scripted, keeps the story moving, and gives us a new and interesting take on a tired genre. The special effects were also top notch and although you were aware this was a movie done on a tight low budget when the fx kicked in they went above and beyond the call. Top notch stuff. I also really liked the tone the lead actor got. A perfect balance and he delivered some really touching moments. So why didn't we get to see this movie in wider release. Studio politics? Who knows. Very worth the effort to track this one down and tell your friends. This is the sort of indie film making we need to encourage and support.

In Basra, Iraq, the American soldier Bart Gregory (David Anders) is ambushed and murdered by the locals. On the night after his funeral, he awakes in his grave and goes to the house of his best friend, the pothead Joey Luebner (Chris Wylde),who does not understand in what Bart has turned into. They unsuccessfully go to a hospital and at dawn, Bart faints and Joey calls his friend, the nurse Mathilda (Jacy King) to help him. They realize that Bart is a revenant, a combination of zombie and vampire, since he needs to drink blood to hold and recover the decomposition of his body. They decide to kill thieves, drug dealers and rapists to get their blood, drugs, weapons and money and they are called Vigilante Gunslingers by the press. One night, Joey is deadly wounded by a criminal and Bart turns him into a revenant. But when Bart's girlfriend Janet (Louise Griffiths) convinces him to turn her into a revenant, the friendship of Joey and Bart is affected.

"The Revenant" is an overrated, unpleasant, unfunny and not scary comedy. The movie is too long and the lead characters are unpleasant and gross. Most of the situations are neither funny as a comedy nor scary as horror. The hype around this movie can not be reasonably explained, unless the director has many friends. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "O Morto Vivo" ("The Living Dead")

I don't usually do a background check on movies. Neither before I watch them nor after that. But just when I was about to write my review I realized this movie was from 2009, but only just played on a 2011 Fantasy Film Festival in Germany. There must be a reason for this clearly. And there is. There seems to be two different cuts of the movie. And while another reviewer who watched this in 2009, talked about this becoming a cult classic, I think the re-edited version I got to see, won't get that far.

Of course when I did watch it in cinemas, I just thought that the filmmakers had lost control and didn't mix their movie right. Just when you think the movie is going great, there comes a scene that almost puts into a full stop. The pacing is all over the place and the best you can say about some jokes is: "They tried". Which is not a good thing at all. Quite the opposite, you can feel how hard they try sometime to be cool, instead of just being. It seems that certain scenes have been inserted to satisfy certain demographics ... What a shame/scam ...

Hopefully there will be a version where you can watch the original (alternate?) cut of the movie. Until then, this is decent, but not as good as Deadheads