The Video Dead (1987)

(In French, On Cable TV, September 2020) The 1980s were a wild time for horror movies, and you only have to make it through the barely controlled craziness of films such as The Video Dead to see how the genre was feeding upon itself at the time. A bizarre mixture of zombie movies with just enough complications to make it a bit more memorable than the norm, it starts with an unsuspecting writer receiving a cursed television that allows zombies to emerge from the screen. When the house’s new owners move in, they too have to contend with the rampaging zombie squad, especially when a kindly Texan shows up at their door to explain the rules of the game: treat these zombies nicely and they won’t realize they’re dead. Then kill them over the ground so that they can be reabsorbed by the Earth, or lock them in a place they can’t get out of. Or something like that. By the time The Video Dead ends, it’s really an excuse to get gory. While some sources describe the film as a horror comedy, there aren’t that many laughs here, as nearly the entire cast dies and the rotting undead seem unstoppable. As a horror film, I’ve seen worse even this week, but let’s not pretend that this is a hidden gem or an overlooked guilty pleasure: it’s about as good an example of what the 1980s made possible through VHS cassette distribution, and what fans of the genre could expect to rent on any given Friday. I remained amazed at how cheap CGI hasn’t led to a resurgence of the 1980s creature features equal to the special practical effects that were routinely achieved back then, but after watching The Video Dead, I’m not exactly complaining too loudly.