Dead Eyes Open, 2006

  A group of friends celebrate their graduation by ditching their cell phones, laptops and tech, and going on a wilderness getaway. Destination: Empty Gas Tank. Soon, they find themselves by a remote forest near a river for some camping and fishing.

While stepping off to pee, one of the group, Christin, meets a woman carrying a shovel looking for her husband to bring him home. A little later, she returns to the group with a story of being bitten by that man.

The following day, the young group enjoy their surroundings: fishing, swimming, cards by the fire, et cetera. Then, just as a small stack of leaflets gets hooked on the line, (with warning of attacks from the deceased, BTW,) Christin screams from her sleep. And boy! Is she is looking rough! They decide to cut the vaca short, find the house Christin spoke of, and hopefully, get some help! 

As the small group changes, little by little, from vacationers to banquet items, they realize they chose a bad time for a road trip.

Shot in Ultra-Low quality, 8mm film, with graininess and splices, and occasional color changes, Dead Eyes Open seems like a a lost, unrestored, movie from the early '70s, despite the cellphones, styles, et cetera. This ragged film quality actually adds to the atmosphere, (as well as makes special effects and make-up seem more convincing!

Also, the movie is in German, with subtitles. This may actually help to hide any acting shortcomings from the living cast, (not that I noticed any). But the story is straightforward enough - what dialog there is isn’t overly intrinsic to the movie.

Despite the dated effects, or more likely, due to them, Dead Eyes Open has a great, creepy feel to it. Some decent suspense and scares, and enough blood and gore to scratch any Z-fans itch.

I think a lot of decisions in making this were quite clever. There is an overall feel of a vintage horror movie here, and the inclusion of the TV Scientist, played by George A. Romero, himself, is inspired!

    But how does this subtitled, Super-8 sleeper stack up against The Zombie Movie Rubric? Well, buoyed by the cast of characters and the ‘straight-up Romeros’ zombies, but dragged back down by special effects and film quality, (be it accidental or calculated,) the ZMR gave Dead Eyes Open a rating of 2.3 out of 4 points! Which is above average and worthy of a recommendation!

R.I.P. Studios Trailer on ze "DuRohr" here: DEAD EYES OPEN

P.S. - R.I.P.  Productions seem to have a few more 'Old School" zombie films! Here is there website:  rip-independent.de