Dead Man Walking (2005)

The opening scene to this movie is one of the best openers that you will ever see for a zombie movie.  If you like uncontrolled camera movements and lots of senseless violence, this is a movie for you.

 

We arrive at Harwood Maximum Security Prison after watching a man shotgun four people coming after him,  had some blood splatter on him, and he is now sick.  When he arrives at the facility, he is sent to the infirmary to be checked.  He tells the doctor that he has been infected by an experimental bio toxin that transfers through body fluids.  After he pukes blood on the doctor, he is sent to solitary.  On his way to solitary, he pukes on several other prisoners.  

 

You can already see what is going to happen here, don't you.

 

Yep, the prison has to be put on lock down while the prisoners riot and also begin eating each other and the guards.  The zombie roller coaster keeps going along, getting just about- everyone in the prison infected.  From the family who came to visit their loved one, to the conjugal visitor, and even the warden's son, no one is safe.  Yeah.  Bad day for "bring your kid to work" day for the warden.

 

Like other movies before it, the real action doesn't happen until you are close to the end of the movie.  That's where the over the top gore comes up.  Intestines being eaten, forearms being ripped off.  Part of just about every modern zombie movie out there.

 

For the introduction to the movie, I give it 5 out of 5 shotgun blasts.

 

For the zombie action, I give it 2 out of 5 zombie children.

 

For the unnecessary and completely senseless violence, I give it 2 out of 5 arm bites.

 

For an average rating of 3 out of 5 maximum security prisons.

Furnace

This movie is supposed to be inspired by real events.  I don't know where this prison is, but I hope that they keep the South wing closed.

 

The movie starts out with a security guard going home to his wife and redecorating the bathroom with his head grits.  There are some flashback scenes that show some parts of his day.  Like when he loses two fingers.  Not enough to kill yourself, but frightening.  During the flashback, we see that the guard was not alone when he lost his two fingers.  The inmate that was there is not responsible for removing the fingers, he was just a witness.  He just happens to witness a little more than he bargained for and winds up dead too.

 

Detective Turner was investigating the suicide, but he wants to investigate a little further.  He visits the Blackgate Prison to collect some information.  Finds out that the area where the guard lost his fingers has been closed for 50 years.  It's being reopened to help accommodate some new arrivals.

 

Detective Turner and the prison psychologist hit it off, have some boring movie sex, and she showers up.  But when she goes to get the towel, she grabs a charred up little girl and the detective gets treated to a guy covered in ash coming out from under his bed.  It ramps up the shock and frightens the two of them.  The detective and psychologist visit the south wing one more time, but this time they go to the previous warden's office.  There, they are treated to a vision of what happened to the warden and the little girl.

 

It would have been nice to know the story of the warden and the little girl sooner.  I was more confused than scared when the furnace broguht the little girl back to life and she begins killing off inmates.  And even knowing the story, I still don't know why she was killing the inmates.  That part was never really explained.

 

I give this movie 2 out of 5 furnace children.