"Dead Walkers: Rise Of The 4th Reich" does little to raise any chills much less something as chilling as a new Nazi Reich. The film is directed by Philip Gardiner who also wrote the story and stars Philip Berzamanis, Jane Haslehurst, Bob Lee, Nathan Head in what is suppose to be a thriller/action gorefest. The film doesn't deliver on any of the intended vision the director was aiming for with this film. The story focuses on "Alpha One" played by Berzamanis who is forced into therapy to deal with a recent mission that entails a Nazi conspiracy and the occult. A powerful and destructive 4th Reich is being formed in "Dead Walkers". An army of hell is coming. Only one man knows the truth. His mission now, is to convince the world. Based on years of occult research and insider knowledge.
The story has a pretty cool and interesting subject and the possibility was definitely there for "Dead Walkers" to be a pretty cool indie action gore flick. The only problem is the execution was a big fail. The visual high concept spectacle that invaded every action scene devoured the film and killed the moment. It was as if every gimmick learned in film school was thrown in just for the hell of it. Dial it back and build a great dialog based story that not only uses the reflective but also the active dialog between characters. Butting the whole of your dramatic aspects and humanistic points on a weak reflective conversation between two not- so-good actors is never wise. Combine that with the constant over-the- top tricks and industrial-rock video like effects that present in a MPD overload and "Dead Walkers: Rise Of The 4th Reich" does little to raise anything at all -entertainment value included.
The upsides, and they are little, in "Dead Walkers" is the surreal, nightmare PTSD dream sequences and flashback scenes with some pretty cool, gore mania come together nicely. That should have been the crux of the visual artistry in this film to frame the action and the dramatic story. Unfortunately with all the other effects happening in the cinematography, these flashback/nightmare moments got lost in my irritation. Actually, the only other good highlight in this film was Philip Barzamanis' body-I give that a higher review than I do this film.
