The Dead Matter

Synopsis

Gretchen (Sean Serino), a young woman, becomes desperate to contact her brother after his passing. She discovers an amulet that allows her to control the dead—which she uses to try and contact him. The amulet also allows results in the calling forth of a small army of zombies, comedically called "Post-Mortem Americans" in the film. This amulet is a sought after relic, pursued by two feuding vampires who have been at odds for millennia: Vellich (Andrew Divoff) and Sebed (Tom Savini). After encountering the vampires, Gretchen and her friends are joined by the vampire-hunter McCallister (Jason Carter), who had originally stolen the amulet from Vellich. McCallister helps Gretchen and her friends combat the villains, and the film ends with a final showdown between the protagonists and the vampires. The film was called a "vampire-zombie hybrid movie" by the Columbus Dispatch.

Filming

The films premise was derived from a student short film shot in 1996 for $2000 at John Carroll University. Filming on the professional release version began in the summer of 2007 at the abandoned Mansfield Reformatory in northeastern Ohio—the same location as the film The Shawshank Redemption. The production budget for the film was about $1.5 million, raised from investors in the State of Ohio. Edward Douglas directed the film, which was produced by Robert Kurtzmans company Precinct 13 Entertainment. A rough version was screen-tested in early 2008 before the film was sent to editing. The Dead Matter is the largest film ever to be funded and filmed entirely in northeastern Ohio. The majority of the cast and crew were also from Ohio themselves, including the cast, a crew of seventy people, and about three dozen extras playing the role of zombies.

Music

During the lead-up to the films release, the Midnight Syndicate named their 2008 album The Dead Matter: Cemetery Gates as a marketing technique. The final soundtrack, composed by Edward Douglas, was released in 2010 as The Dead Matter: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack.

Release

The official premiere of the film occurred at the Tower City Cinemas in Cleveland, Ohio on October 3, 2009. After this the film was shown at film festivals and fan conferences around the United States, before being released as a direct-to-video property. The films DVD-release was on July 30, 2010, and was heavily promoted and featured in Hot Topic retail stores. A trailer for the film was posted on the Hot Topic website as well. The DVD and soundtrack CD were both included in the original package release. A week prior to the release, the film was shown at the Geauga Theater in Chardon, Ohio—the same movie theatre that the director saw his first ever movie, at the age of five, thirty years beforehand. Further screenings were held after the release in Indianapolis, Chicago, Atlanta, and Louisville, Kentucky.

Reception

Killer Reviews wrote of the film that, "Its production values are good enough to keep us involved and the film knows well enough not to take itself too seriously which only adds to the enjoyment factor," and mentioned the films "clever dialogue". Movie Crypt wrote that the film was "a script that is clearly from a horror fan writing for horror fans". Fearnet wrote that "The Dead Matter is an ambitious effort for a first-time filmmaker, but I’d say Douglas and company managed to accomplish their goal of transforming Midnight Syndicate’s sense of spooky Halloween fun to a visual medium. The writing is economical, and seldom bogs down with talky exposition; the plot is revealed in stages, and it’s only baffling when it’s intended to be." Other reviewers noted the films maintaining of more traditional vampire types, in comparison to the more "glittery" vampires of other films released in the 1990s and 2000s. In October 2010 Fangoria Magazine named the film its DVD of the month in October 2010.

Cast