Dead Kids DVD Review

Another kinda cool find. This is no Halloween. Hell, it ain't even Dead & Buried. But it's entirely watchable, made even moreso by the impressive cast for such a low budget shlock of a movie. Michael Murphy and Louise Fletcher bring a nice sweet quality to their performances, Fiona Lewis does her evil scientist routine (but she does it sooo well) and the supporting cast is peppered with Zemeckis/Spielberg types such as Marc McClure and Scott Brady. Rey Young is lovely as Caroline, and although she's had an impressive career, she deserved more success after this. Only Dan Shor in the lead role comes up kinda short. The introduction by Australian producer Anthony Ginnane explains the history of the movie, how it was to be made in Australia, but vetoed because the Australian govt. didn't want them making what was esentially an American movie, so they shipped it over to Auckland, Peter Jackson style! They do a decent job of American-ising everything, so it's kinda appropriate that the most obviously NZ scenes are the two deleted scenes. Production values are solid - it has a decent score by Tangerine Dream and it's nicely shot. It's also cool to have some extras for such an 'unknown' flick. The biggest trivia is revealed by Ginnane, that co-writer Bill Condon is in the opening scene and went on to work on Chicago (n omention of the fact he won an Oscar for Gods & Monsters though). Director Michael Loughlin went on to make Strange Invaders, the second in a proposed trilogy that was never finished, that featured many of the key cast & crew from Dead Kids (titled Strange Behaviour in the US) - Louis Fletcher, Dan Shor, Rey Young, Fiona Lewis, Charles Lane plus writer Bill Condon. Ginnane also points out, curiously enough, that Loughlin produced Two-Lane Blacktop!