Movie Review - Dead Heat

Dead Heat

(1988)

Helpern/Meltzer : New World Pictures / Anchor Bay Entertainment / Image Entertainment

7.25 / 10

This was a rare treat to watch.  I had forgotten how good and funny this little horror comedy thriller is.

This is a buddy-buddy cop tale that takes a walk on the Darkside.  While in a shootout with a couple of jewellery store robbers they are amazed when the bad guys just won't lie down dead even though they're dancing a Spandau Ballet in a hail of bullets.  It takes a hand-grenade and a speeding car to bring them down.

It's not until they get the bodies into the morgue that they realise they have already been autopsied...

This is one of the best and funniest Zombie films around.  Back in the glorious '80's the special FX really did go the extra mile.  The scene in the Chinese butcher's shop is hilarious and gruesome as the dead animals come back to life.

However, not everything about this movie is fun.  Around the half way mark the film slows down and the laughs start to disappear... in fact, the story pretty much stops.  It does pick up in the last fifteen minutes of the film but never quite reaches the highs of the first half of the movie.

Both of the lead roles, Treat Williams as Roger Mortis and Joe Piscopo as Doug Bigelow, work well together and this chemistry works well and pretty much holds the film together.  It's when these two aren't together that the movie suffers.  Most of the comedy moments are where these two are working off each other.

Both Darren McGavin (of "Kolchack: The Night Stalker" fame) as Dr Ernest McNab and Vincent Price as Arthur P Loudermilk are underused.  These two could have been utilised a little more in the second half of the film, this may have helped the lift the movie here, making it a little less boring.

Mark Goldblatt, does a good job of utilising the lead actors and bringing out some really good dark comedic moments.

I'd recommend this to anybody who has a dark sense of humour and likes everything horror and Zombi.  Still one of my favourites of the '80's even with the stale second half... it has a special place in my heart.