Shadow: Dead Riot (2005)

Directed by Derek Wan

Movie Review by Al Fleshrot

Summary
A satanic serial killer known as Shadow is executed by lethal injection, but he performs a ritual immediately prior that transforms the other inmates into crazed killers. Shadow literally explodes on the table, and the warden has his men open fire on the rioting prisoners. All of the bodies, and Shadow's remains are tossed in a mass grave in the prison yard. Flash forward 20 years and the prison has become a women's correctional facility. A new prisoner called Solitaire arrives on the scene and immediately gets on the bad side of the reigning kingpin Mondo. Needless to say we are treated to a plethora of nude women and pretty decent fight scenes. But soon Solitaire starts having visions of Shadow...

The zombies arrive from two fronts. A couple of women happen to bleed right over the twenty year old grave where the dead rioters and Shadow lie and it rejuvenates some of the corpses. I would be remiss if I did not mention that one of the women gives birth on top of the grave and her newborn baby ends up being a zombie! Meanwhile the prison doctor has been secretly injecting various women with remnants of Shadow's blood. Unbeknownst to the current staff, the doc is actually the former executioner who was present for Shadow's death. The effect on Solitaire is the visions, but the effect on Mondo is undeath! One of the zombies from the grave kills a female inmate in the shower and takes her heart to Shadow's remains. The blood oozing from the heart completes Shadow's rebirth and he subsequently raises the rest of his zombie army. An epic battle ensues involving much kung fu from Solitaire. Ultimately everyone and everything dies and it culminates in a showdown between Shadow and Solitaire. She finishes him off and walks out of the prison as the only survivor.

Review
The premise of this movie should lure you in right away - zombies in a women's prison. It has all the elements of a classic cheesy horror movie, including gratuitous (extremely gratuitous!) nudity and lesbian encounters (well, it is a women's prison!). I must admit I omitted some of the plot subtleties in the Summary section concerning the supernatural and Shadow's relationship to Solitaire, but you can watch it yourself! The actors are generally pretty bad, except the prison doctor who in my opinion is excellent. And Tony Todd is...well Tony Todd. The special effects were pretty awful. There was plenty of dismemberment, but most of the time it was just flashed on the screen for an instant. My favorite effects were the scenes underground that showed blood seeping into the ground because no effort was made whatsoever to hide the fact that it was just a cartoon drawing. But despite the bad effects, there is plenty of action and some great fight scenes. These women make Steven Seagal look like a choir boy. Solitaire kicks the crap out of Mondo, but she hardly spills a drop of blood and just keeps getting up for more! And Solitaire is repeatedly pummeled with police batons, gets smashed in the gut with a fire extinguisher, and is thrown violently against a wall several times, but shakes it off like it was nothing. The zombie makeup was pretty decent, but their movements were pretty unimpressive. It looked more like a bunch of drunks stumbling around than walking dead. But you have to take this movie at its face value, and it delivers in the B movie genre.

Best Zombie Kill
When the doc is treating Mondo for a cut she received in a fight with Solitaire, he decides to inject her with some of Shadow's blood. She immediately convulses and dies straight away, but almost immediately awakes again as a zombie. She starts to give the poor doc a beat down, and a guard rushes in to help. He beats on Mondo repeatedly with his baton, so she turns around and takes it from him. She shoves it into his mouth, then pushes it so hard it comes out through the back of his head.

Best Zombie Death
Solitaire had to kick Mondo's ass twice before, but the third time was a charm. In their final encounter Mondo is now a zombie, but she still appears to know kung fu. After a brief fight Solitaire sweeps Mondo's legs, forcing her into the splits, and then grabs her head with both hands and pulls it completely off!

Memorable Scene
One of the inmates is doing an obligatory shower scene and is waiting for Elsa the lesbian guard to return. But a zombie enters the shower and starts groping the unsuspecting woman from behind. She smiles thinking Elsa has returned, but when it gets a little too aggressive with the melons she turns and screams as she is confronted by a rotting corpse. She claws at its face, pulling one of its eyes out of the socket. But the zombie is unfazed and plunges a hand into her chest, ripping out her heart.

Incidentally, this same zombie is later seen walking around with its eye dangling from the socket. And in one scene it holds the eye and maneuvers it around to find a victim!

Al Fleshrot wants your brains