DEADEN (2006 dir Christian Viel)

Movie Seals Productions DVD

John Fallon of JoBlo.com/Arrow in the Head and Christian Viel (director of EVIL BREED: THE LEGEND OF SAMHAIN) team up to give us this brilliant, super bloody Canadian tribute to the classic exploitation/revenge/vigilante flicks of the 1970s.

Fallon stars as Rane, a former cop with a wife. Rane becomes a biker. His fellow members of the new gang he's become a part of end up discovering he used to be a cop and when this becomes known, they aren't too happy. The vicious gang brutally murders Rane's wife while she's pregnant and, in a very graphic scene, gut her and rip her fetus out. Rane ends up with a crossbow through his head and gets dumped in a river. Amazingly, Rane somehow manages to survive it and undergoes extensive operations to recover. He still ends up with only a small piece of the crossbow embedded in his forehead, as it got stuck in a place where if the doctors tried to remove it, it would kill him. Thirsty for blood and vengeance, Rane enlists the help of his buddy Kersey (Deke Richards), an expert in drugs and arms dealing, arms himself with plenty of firearms, and heads out to bump off the gang members who killed his wife and left him for dead. A brutal, splattery bloodbath of mayhem, shootouts, gun battles, explosions, immolation, gangster shishkabobbing, and more ensues.

DEADEN is an excellent low budget effort and great homage to the DEATH WISH movies with Charles Bronson and numerous '70s grindhouse/revenge classics. John Fallon does a fine job as Rane as well as Deke Richards as Kersey and director Christian Viel keeps up the pace and action and makes sure the characters and story remain interesting to the viewer. A movie you may think of while watching is James Wan's recent DEATH SENTENCE (2007) with Kevin Bacon, another vigilante-type revenge flick with the same '70s vibe. There are LOTS of striking similarities between the two movies. Another movie that came to mind while watching is Jim Van Bebber's low budget classic DEADBEAT AT DAWN (1988), mainly due to the extreme nihilism and brutality on display throughout. DEADEN is a good mix of genres including action, revenge, thriller, horror and gore. It's a picture with something for everybody and lots for B-movie fans to enjoy.

As of right now, two versions are available on DVD. One is the U.S. Maverick Entertainment release, which is cut by 4 minutes, and the other is the "Unrated Limited Collector's Edition" from Movie Seals Productions, which this review is based on. The DVD presents the movie in full screen (4:3 format) and in Dolby Stereo. Extras contain an audio commentary with Viel and Fallon and another commentary with Fallon and Richards, interviews with members of the cast and crew, a photo gallery, and trailers for DEADEN and Viel's LIGNES DE VIE, RECON 2020 and RECON 2022.

If you're a Bronson vigilante movie fan, a '70s grindhouse/revenge movie fan, or a fan of DEATH SENTENCE or DEADBEAT AT DAWN, you owe yourself nothing more than to purchase a copy of DEADEN ASAP! Be sure to get the uncut version from Movie Seals if at all possible. Visit www.deaden-movie.com.