The Horror Show
Dead Rising: Watchtower
by Zach Lipovsky
If you’re not a fan of the Dead Rising video game franchise, you need to be. I have spent countless hours of my life running around as either Frank West, Chuck Greene, or Nick Ramos, fighting zombies in the most comical way possible while sometimes crossdressing and uncovering the mysteries of the often caused-by-government zombie apocalypse.
Dead Rising: Watchtower is an extremely welcome addition to the over-crowded zombie genre. The film starts you off right in the middle of the action— our main character is running away from a horde of zombies and locks himself in an alley, only to stumble upon a psychotic clown and an undead policeman that still knows how to shoot his weapon. Then we flashback to three days earlier, learning of the start of the outbreak and being introduced to the whole cast.
We have our “hero” Chase, played by Jesse Metcalf (aka John Tucker), a clumsy field reporter who just wants to find that one news story that will skyrocket him to fame. (I use the word hero loosely here because to understand a hero in the Dead Rising world is to understand that these people are just your average Joes, unexpectedly thrown into the end of the world without a clue of how to make it out alive.) We’ve also got the heroine, Crystal (Meghan Ory), an infected woman who might be the key to solving the latest outbreak of the virus after it’s found that the life-saving medication, Zombrex, no longer works. The supporting characters of Maggie (Virginia Madsen), a broken woman who’s lost her daughter to the zombie virus, and Jordan (Keegan Connor Tracy), Chase’s partner who is trying to help the trapped trio of survivors escape the city.
Together these people will attempt to not only escape a city that’s doomed to be fire-bombed by the military, but uncover a huge government/big pharma conspiracy while also trying to survive a city filled with psychopaths that find themselves particularly comfortable now that the world’s gone to hell.
Now, without further ado, let’s get to the review! (I rhymed that by accident, but I’m quite pleased with myself.)
So, all I’ve heard so far about this movie is negativity. “Bad acting, bad writing, bad effects” and to me it’s all bullshit. Dead Rising: Watchtower is a non-stop ride of flesh-eating fun. I was especially impressed at how on-point director Zach Lipovsky was with going from game to movie. From start to finish, the film played out just like it was a new addition to the franchise. The camera often goes back and forth from third person to first person, giving the viewer a glimpse of life from one of our main character’s perspectives, a zombie’s point of view, or the “kill-cam” from one of the fabulous weapons crafted by the characters. The acting was fantastic, exactly what I expected, especially from Rob Riggle, who plays the cocky Frank West. (Also, let me point out that Dennis Haysbert is in this movie, ‘nuff said.)
From Servbots to psychopath boss fights and the Tape It or Die method of making weapon combos, this film is everything that I could have wanted in a Dead Rising adaption. A girl can dream though, one day I hope that Chuck Greene will have his day in the silver screen spotlight. (I’m looking at you Zach Lipovsky.) Dead Rising: Watchtower is the ultimate combination of comedy, gore, action, and horror.
If you didn’t like this movie, chances are you know nothing about the video games, and that’s okay, but you should probably go play them, or watch someone play them. That’s a thing these days.
This film comes highly recommended from me, and as a writer in and ultimate fangirl of the zombie genre, that’s a good thing. My only qualm with this movie was that Freedom Bear didn’t make an appearance, but I can live with that.
Stevie Kopas, HMS
The Horror Show Menu.