Army of The Dead

This film's tag line of "Never Trust a Skeleton with a Machine Gun…" is wonderful, guaranteed to put a smile on your face. But it's one that the film itself struggles to match.

At it's core there is a really good idea for a film here. The mix of Ray Harryhausen style skeleton warriors, a centuries old curse, a group of thrill seeking American students (impending victims) and the remoteness of the Mexican desert all sounds as they should make a great fun film.

As for the execution…well it doesn't totally live up to the promise. The CGI skeletons are not perfect but they're better than you would expect from such a low-budget horror film. It's likely this is why the rest of the film feels so ultra-low budget. They obvious spent most of the cash on trying to make the fleshless bad guys as convincing as they could.

It's had an effect. The acting is pretty awful (I've seen worse but not often). The dialog sucks (obviously no time for rewrites or polishes). The effects other than the skeletons are downright atrocious (worst fake blood I've seen in years).

But, for its many faults, there are some endearing touches to this film. It isn't just another clone of a horror cliché - it has many obvious influences but manages to mould these into a new(ish) whole.

It also plays fast and loose with history and science but you might just find yourself forgiving it. And the reason is… Well, it's obvious. And anyone who has seen and loved Harryhausen films like "Jason and the Argonauts" will find the site of an army of stop-motion skeletons very appealing.

Page updated 28 January, 2011