Dead Serious (2005)

I started my Sunday with watching Joe Sullivan’s criminally under-distributed Dead Serious, an action-oriented vampire-flick set in a New York gay bar! I’m not the one that says no to ambitious indie-movies and since I first heard of Dead Serious I wanted to see it. The concept is fun and feels like a fresh idea in a sea of the normal stupidity released on DVD. So was the movie any good? Let’s see…

A normal night in New York: Mike (Michael Weingartner), an accountant have one last meeting at one of his new clients, a gay bar and decides to meet up with his wife Susan (Felissa Rose) there afterwards. The night is young and the crowd is dancing, drinking and having a blast. One of them is Richard (a spot-on Patrick Swearingen) who goes there to find his husband, who he suspects might have an affair with someone at the bar. But his husband Troy (Brian Gianci) is actually a government agent, trying to figure out why people are disappearing around the bar – and now he knows. The bar is taken over by vampires and they, together with The Christian Action Army – lead by evil conservative reverend Bob Rivington (Carson Grant) – take over the US, transform all the gay’s to nice, decent heterosexuals with a serum and bring back God into everyone’s life!

Dead Serious is Die Hard VS Vampires VS gay comedy VS biting (no pun intended) satire! First let me start with a small complain. It ended way to fast. I wanted more of everything, and they only way I can see this happen is if Dead Serious gets better distribution so director Joe Sullivan has to give us a sequel. Because another action-vampire-horror flick with an accountant and his wife, a Broadway dancer and a government agent against killer Christians would be fantastic.

But at least, while it last, Dead Serious is a fun and smart horror-comedy with a good amount of blood and witty dialogue. It’s a low-budget SOV film, seem to be shot at a real bar somewhere and that is both a blessing and a curse. I guess the location stopped the crew from going really berserk with violence and gore, but also gave the movie a realism which I appreciate. It’s not without blood and the squibs and fangs is plenty! The best thing is the actors, which are better casted than many other horror-indies I’ve seen. From the trio of excellent bad guys, Thomas A. Cahill (imagine Jürgen Prochnow, but more dangerous), Paul Coughlan and Carson Grant to the very funny crew of The Decency Channel (for example Jack Halpin as Blanton Wheatley, the hairspray-obsessed TV reporter) to the likable heroes mentioned above. This is great casting with actors who can deliver smart and funny dialogue and at the same time give believable performances.

It’s quite hard to find Dead Serious, which is a damn pity, because it really deserves better distribution. It’s one of those rare indie-movies that try to making something more than just shooting another boring slasher in mom’s backyard.