Successfully pop-writers do not always make the best comedy-horror writers, and "Dead 7" proves that. Written by and starring Backstreet Boy's member Nick Carter this film found its way to audiences thanks to the Asylum and KaOtic Production companies - you know, the same Asylum that brought audiences the "Sharknado" films. With that in mind, before sitting down to watch this I had low expectations - but they were not quite low enough.
The zombie apocalypse occurred. Humanity reverted to a simpler way of living, which in this case is like the Wild West crossed with Mad Max. A woman called Apocalypta (Debra Wilson) trains zombies as her army and then starts to send them out to destroy the town of Harper's Junction. Some residents flee while others create a fighting resistance. The resistance fighters, which includes Billy (Jeff Timmons), his girlfriend Daisy (Carrie Keagan), his brother Jack (Nick Carter), and Whiskey Joe (Joey Fatone), try to save the town but will ultimately have to take the fight to the Apocalypta.
This low-budget film is a bit of a mess. The tone of the film feels wrong, it can't decide if it's a western or something more modern. Rather than picking one style it tries to jump between them and it gets more annoying than it is confusing. Occasionally over exposed shots, occasionally tinted yellow, occasional clear shot, all contribute the tone being mixed up and confused.
The plot is really basic and didn't do much to keep me entertained - while Nick Carter wanted to have a bash at starring and writing a film, maybe he should have stuck to writing music. The writing that does not help the plot also makes the characters and dialogue poor too - to be fair it cannot be blamed entirely on Nick Carter because Sawyer Perry was employed as a screenwriter too - it takes two to tango. I did not care for any of the characters, they came across as wooden and 2 dimensional. It felt like failed amateur dramatics, at times very cheesy, and other times completely stale.
In some films, a badly written character can be saved by a great acting performance. I can assure you that this is something that the film is missing too. The ensemble of actors in the film do have plenty of experience in pop-music and being in music videos, but when it comes to proper acting it is obvious that it was a struggle for them. The performances did not carry much emotional weight and annoyingly from one scene to the next accents would change for no reason - as if the actors forgot which accent, they started the film with. This film brings you not just one Backstreet Boy, but three of them. They are not alone and pop fans of the late 1990's and early 2000's may also recognise members of 98 Degrees, N*Sync, O-Town, Everclear, Crazy Town, No Authority, Atlas Genius, and All-4-One.
Do not expect Earth-shattering SFX of CGI in this film. Id' be lying if I said that the zombies looked convincing, and the action was made to look visually stunning. Likewise, the set and staging is pretty bad too. All in all, this is a bad film - admittedly it is not the worst film I have ever seen, but it's a bad film that I won't be in a rush to watch again or recommend. This is not one of the better films that Asylum and KaOtic have produced, and this SyFy channel original might as well crawl back to the shadows where it belongs. 89 minutes of my life I'll never get back.
