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Brandon
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Exclusive Movie Review: "Ring of the Dead"
| Published 10/10/03
Graphic By: Brandon Faust
"Ring of the Dead" is the latest movie production composed by ROC (Radford On Camera), a Student Media organization of RU. It started in March 2003, and the final touches were completed just this last week. The team that made this all happen worked their butts off to make its release this year, just before Halloween. Their work has paid off.
The "horror short" starts out with a hobo, played by RU student Tom Gordon. It begins with the hobo strolling in the park, as any friendly hobo would. An innocent runner, who was wearing very attractive running shorts, collides with the hobo. The mean, old bum curses him as the jogger continues running off. As the hobo walks along the water, he spots this mysterious box that comprises a freaky skull ring. He puts it on, and all hell breaks loose.
A zombie, played by Dana Gelb, rises from his tomb and wreaks havoc upon the town. Several people are slaughtered, bitten, stabbed and snapped. Only the gun-toting hero, known as "Kevin," can put the zombie back in its place.
The movie sounds great, right? It is, but you must watch it from a very independent production point-of-view. The flick is very low budget. Andrew Kinback, the writer/producer/director of "Ring of the Dead," pretty much funded the production out of his own pocket.
"It cost a little over four hundred dollars to put it together," said Kinback. "We had to come up with some very creative ways to make the special effects."
The ROC team, which included Johnny Tsai, did quite a good job.
"We definitely did what we could with what we had the capabilities to do," Kinback explained. Some of the substitutes for props and guts were quite surprising as their identities were revealed.
"Ring of the Dead" was shot on location in Radford and in North Garden, which is in Charlottesville, Va., in a speedy two days.
"We had some difficulties with the weather, and most of the team was getting restless at times," Kinback says. "There was even a time where one of our guys was experiencing hypothermia."
The acting was as good as it gets, considering they were all unpaid college students. The hero, "Kevin," is reminiscent of Bruce Campbell when he gets peeved. The five minute make-out scene was enough to rate this NC-17. Ha. Also, the zombie did well at acting unfriendly.
The most impressive aspects were the gruesome scenes of "Ring of the Dead." There is a scene where the zombie rips a man in half and starts eating his insides. Better yet, he even eats this woman while she's still living! I could go on, but I obviously don't want to ruin it any further. Kinback, Assistant Director Hunter Roberts, and right-hand woman Jonelle Thackston put a lot of thought in all of these scenes.
"I always wanted to do it," Kinback exclaimed. "I worked on the writing while I worked at the movie theater. It was like hitting two birds with one stone...the dream of making a horror movie and giving all of us at ROC the teamwork experience while making it." Kinback's biggest influences, which may be evident when you watch the short horror, were the "Evil Dead" series, "Night of the Living Dead" trilogy and even Bruce Campbell's book, "If Chins Could Kill."
You can't forget the oh-so-crucial soundtrack that every movie needs. "Ring of the Dead" has an exquisite soundtrack, written and produced by Burnt Spider Productions, a small post production company based out of Culpeper Va. All they needed was a microphone, synthesizer and some guitars. Andrew felt it contributed greatly to the movie.
"I believe every soundtrack puts a little backbone into a movie," said Kinback. The soundtrack certainly does help some key scenes to feel a little more spooky rather than bland or not creepy at all.
Andrew knows that "Ring of the Dead" isn't necessarily a movie to take completely serious, but he wants it to make an impact for sure. "I am paying homage to cheesy movies. I love cheesy kung-fu and horror movies. I hope that my audience is entertained and that all are aware that ROC students did this to serve as a sort of motivation," commented Kinback.
Andrew Kinback graduated from Radford University in May 2003 and is currently working on his next script for a horror short which should be completed within the next few months. To see the premiere of "Ring of the Dead," be sure to line up (there will be a line) at the Black Box Studio at Porterfield Hall, Wednesday, October 15 at 7 p.m. There will be a screening, a panel discussion afterwards and some PR stunts, of course.
To see the "Ring of the Dead" trailer click here!
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Responses: Year: Frosh Comments: Sounds like a cool film! I'll have to check it out. Name: Andrew Kinback
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