Dead Kansas (2013) Reviews

• Dead Kansas is dead on arrival.

  hollywoodpsychic2015-07-13

  I picked up a DVD copy of Dead Kansas last year because I noticed Irwin Keyes was in it. And I popped it on this weekend after the announcement that he passed away a few days ago. Unfortunately, Irwin's part is so miniscule, it's hardly worth mentioning. It's too bad, really, because he'd have been a far more interesting character to follow than most of the amateur leads. I say "most" because Joe McQueen (the actor who plays "Skinny") is actually quite good and very watchable. Unfortunately, that can't be said about the rest of the main cast, especially in regards to the poorly scripted lead role: Emma. (Note: this character was played by two separate actresses, due to a prolonged shooting schedule brought on by obvious budgetary limitations. It's quite clear that production lurched along in fits and starts, with shooting commencing only when money and scheduling allowed. It should be a surprise to no one that such a disjointed approach to filmmaking would result in a sloppy and inconsistent final product.) Still, I watch no-budget, regional horror not because I expect perfection, but rather because it's always great to stumble upon some unseen diamond in the rough. A good idea or an interesting concept can often transcend the limitations of an amateur cast and crew, or a non-existent budget. (See the works of Richard Griffin, The Zellner Brothers, Adam Wingard, Mark Leake, Zachary Hadden, Kristian Day, Damon Packard, Adam Cooley, Ryan Trecartin, or any number of others doing interesting work with no money.) And, to be fair, the concept behind Dead Kansas does work to a point. Essentially, this is a post-apocalyptic zombie movie loosely structured around a Wizard of Oz story template: A young girl must leave her Kansas farm after a tornado (and a zombie bite) leaves her father injured. She takes to the road with a ragtag group of friends in the hopes of finding a doctor who can help her father. Unfortunately, the Wizard of Oz elements are merely surface deep. So the idea collapses under the weight of a poor script that barely succeeds at delivering the most basic elements of screen writing 101: Plot, Character, Dialogue. (And utterly fails at the more complicated elements of screen writing and storytelling such as Pacing, Conflict, Theme, etc.) And therein lies the film's most crippling problem. It's just not a very good story. Characters barely serve the needs of their badly scripted scenes, let alone the rest of the plot or larger picture. I did enjoy one aspect of the ending, but frankly because I'd given up hope in a fully realized concept by that point and was surprised to see ONE obvious (but oh-so welcomed) story resolution. There are other problems with Dead Kansas beyond the bad writing, amateur acting and choppy filmmaking... the sound mix is uneven, the editing and camera angles are poor, and the low budget doesn't allow for many effect shots at all (so you can forget about seeing the zombies, kills, the tornado, and most of the "action")... but honestly, all of that could be forgiven if the script was better. I wish director Aaron K. Carter the best and I sincerely hope his future efforts benefit from the lessons he learned and the mistakes he made with this one. I'd even watch a sequel to Dead Kansas if it ever happens. But I do hope he works on his screen writing and scrapes up a little bit of money to put a better production together before rolling camera. And I really hope he manages to put his stronger cast front and center, and retires the amateurs to the supporting roles next time.

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• Web series turned movie

  Leofwine_draca2017-03-16

  DEAD KANSAS is a very low budget science fiction horror movie with a post-apocalyptic setting. It was originally released as a series of web episodes which gives the story an episodic feel. Unfortunately, as with most independent fare being made today, the whole thing is too cheap to be taken seriously. The worst thing about the extended filming schedule is that the lead actress changes around the halfway mark, which is pretty much unforgivable in a production like this. Me, I would have given up with it, but instead they recast and soldier on. The good news is that the second actress is better than the first. Otherwise, we're in a world which attempts to mix Romero-style zombie horror with some MAD MAX-style criminal gangs. None of it is very convincing or indeed credible. The performances vary by cast member. It's not the worst film I've seen, but very far from the best.

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• My Review Of "Dead Kansas"

  ASouthernHorrorFan2015-05-03

  Aaron K. Carter's post-zompocalypse film is probably one of the oddest experiences I have had watching indie/homegrown movies. The story focuses on a Father/daughter drama of survival post outbreak, like way post. Very little society is left and most of the "rottens" have rotted away. All that is left is bands of people fighting one another to carve out dominance over the Kansas terrain. Throw in that only daughter seems to be immune from the virus that is blamed by the whole of female society for its destruction, and you have an old school male dominated saga unfolding. First off I want to explain why I said this is one of the oddest viewing experiences I have had. "Dead Kansas" is by no means a strong indie zombie film, nor is it a strong story. There is just so much that noticeably goes wrong in every act- the writing, line delivery, timing, the characters – it all is just a off. And yet, there is some hidden entity that possesses this film's atmosphere and energy that forced me to watch. I found small moments of gold in here that made me highly entertained. Plus some of the cast are nice surprises that legitimize "Dead Kansas". Irwin Keyes, Ben Woolf both add something special to "Dead Kansas". The special effects are almost non existent since most is suggestive and off camera. Even the zombies are never really since except for once. It is a bit of a let down but in a genre over saturated with material already there is really nothing that "Dead Kansas" could have done to add to the situation. Still it would have been nice to see them a bit more. I get why Carter went with the concept that he did. It is creative and artist to place the viewer inside the eyes of the zombie by having the scenes switch to black & white. Plus with the scene that an actual zombie shows up on screen, that moment and how it pertains to the story and characters in the moment aims for profundity. Overall "Dead Kansas" is gonna disappoint a lot of people who set out to watch the film. It is on the lower quality side of indie film making-not sure if they had a budget or not. Didn't look like they did. The story is "been-there-done-that", and the acting really should have been reigned in more on several of these characters. All that said, the oddity of nature that accompanies these characters, the off-tempo line deliveries, and the sound track somehow put off a Fred Olen Ray/Gil Bettman vibe. By the last scene I actually found myself into the surviving characters and excited that they left the story open for a sequel.

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• Dead On Arrival

  Theo Robertson2017-02-14

  I recently got a private message from someone asking if they'd seen their film DEAD KANSAS , "it is the first zombie film to use Point Of View (POV) zombies - in other words, the camera is the "zombie's eye" in some scenes." . Actually this isn't true because a while ago I saw a short film featuring a zombie apocalypse where a human witnesses a zombie attack , gets bitten and they become a zombie where the human beings are now the antagonists , the title of which escapes me .Nevertheless I wrote back I'd be happy to review though warned my reviews are always honest . Unfortunately I've got to keep to my word and say I did not like DK one bit I noticed there's a large number of external reviews from other sites and the vast majority of them seem rather kind , possibly because they don't want to upset the feelings of someone who has gone to the time and trouble of politely asking reviewers to take a look at their movie . It's obviously a project made out of love and hopefully the crew had a lot of fun making because as a neutral viewer I didn't have much fun watching it . The budget is non existent which isn't a criticism but this means you've got to cast mainly amateurs in key roles and they're just not good enough to carry the film . In fact in one bizarre segment the female lead turns in to a completely different actress reinforcing this is some modern day Ed Wood type production . This puzzled me so much that I had to check the trivia section to find out what was going on and found out several interesting things about DK . One is that it was originally envisaged as a short film , then blossomed in to a web series and eventually got re-edited in a near feature length film . The filming took place over a period of months which along with the lack of budget explains its disjointed car crash like quality . I hope I haven't reduced to tears the production member who asked me to review their film but I'm afraid I didn't like it . Sorry and please don't hate me .

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• Much better than your average zombie movie

  mxyzptlk20092015-01-24

  I watched Aaron K. Carter's film with a group of friends at an online movie-and-chat site that I moderate, and I'll say right off the bat that the movie was very well received. It caught the attention of our viewers at the very beginning and held it until the very end. I personally consider it one of the best independent films we've ever shown. I really liked the way that Carter handled the zombies ("rottens" as they're called in this movie), showing only glimpses of them until the final sequence. The ending itself was startling and memorable and (thankfully) left the way open to a sequel. The guest actors -- Irwin Keyes ("House of 1000 Corpses"), Ben Woolf ("American Horror Story: Freakshow"), Joe McQueen ("Confessions of a Superhero"), Tony Della Catena ("Colors"), and Juliette Danielle ("The Room")-- were fun to watch (and watch out for), and McQueen in particular was a real asset to the film. The acting overall was first-rate, particularly for an independent film. Carter avoids the clichés of many zombie films, and the emphasis is on story and character rather than on gore. There is none of the amateurish look and feel that characterizes so many independently made horror films. The only "criticism" I heard from our group was that some of our viewers thought that Kevin Beardsley played the part of Rusty too broadly. But none of them picked up on the fact that he also played the character of Zeke. To me, that's good acting when someone plays two roles and no one notices. Also, no one noticed that the actress playing the lead character switched midway through the movie. Another example of good acting (and directing). There are number of clever references to "The Wizard of Oz" (apart from the fact that the movie takes place in Kansas), which gave me an even greater appreciation of the movie. Although initially made as a five-part web series over a period of many months (hence the need to switch lead actresses after the first one got visibly pregnant), the movie has an overall coherence with a logical beginning, middle, and end, and doesn't look like five separate pieces arbitrarily strung together. All in all, I found this to be an impressive first film, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of Carter's work.

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