Trash Or Terror Tuesday: Dead 7 (2000)

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It’s time for #TrashOrTerrorTuesday

…when I examine a film that’s been languishing in my personal library to determine if it is #Trash or #Terror

– or more importantly, if it deserves to stay in my collection.

And so, out from the dusty shelves of #VHS tapes comes…

DVD box art for Dead 7 (2000)Dead 7 (2000) by #GarrettClancy

w/ #JanetTracyKeijser #TanyaDempsey

A group of friends are killed one by one after discovering numerous dead bodies of drug dealers while out on a hike.

“Your Ultimate Fear Has A New Number!”

#Horror #Thriller

#TrashOrTerrorTuesday

 

I think that the only reason why I kept this DVD in my collection is that it was released by Brain Damage Films, which according to Wikipedia “distributes a variety of horror and shock exploitation movies in many formats, including DVD, Blu-ray, and cable, satellite, and Internet video on demand.” They were a fairly new company when I bought this movie, and I was curious to see what kind of films they were making/distributing. I’m pretty sure that Dead 7 (2000) did not particularly impress me, but it was kind of okay, and I felt like it might be worth keeping as an example of a Brain Damage Films movie. Perhaps I thought that other Brain Damage Films movies might be better, and I would decide to collect their entire catalogue. I’m not sure. Needless to say, I never became a Brain Damage Films collector, and I’ve only seen a handful of their movies over the years – and none of them have become personal favourites. 

So, why is Dead 7 taking up valuable space on my movie library shelf? That is the question I asked myself, right before putting it to the #TrashOrTerrorTuesday test.

The description of the movie is inaccurate. It’s not about a group of friends who stumble upon some drug dealers bodies and then get killed off for knowing too much. This is about a couple of drug dealers killing some guys (who cheated them in some way) and dumping their bodies into a hole. Meanwhile, coincidentally and unknown to them, their girlfriends are wandering around the same wooded area looking for some leaves for a school art project (or something like that). Also in the area is another girl from school, and her mute brother. The drug dealing assholes toss the mute brother into the hole with the dead bodies because he may have seen them. Since the poor guy can’t speak or make a sound, he can’t call for help and let anyone know that he’s down there.

Fast forward several months (?!)

Someone starts killing the asshole drug dealers and their girlfriends. SPOILER ALERT: It’s the dead mute kid who’s been rotting in that hole for months.

Dead 7 is not much of a horror film. It plays like a cheapjack crime film for the first two thirds. The “horror” really only starts happening in the final act – and it’s pretty tame. 

So what’s the verdict?

Dead 7 (2000) is trash – and not the good kind that delivers laughs, gore and sleazy entertainment. There are a couple of slightly sleazy scenes involving the drug dealers and their girlfriends, and some rather unremarkable gore – but all of this stuff happens in the final 20-30 minutes of the movie. You have to sit through a lot of nothing in order to get there. All in all, I’m not sure how I allowed myself to sit through this movie twice – but I won’t be doing it again. Perhaps someone, somewhere, likes this movie more than me. They can have it.

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