Detroit Blood City

Synopsis: A group of inept criminals are given instructions by the “boss” to clean up the garage where they all work so that it looks professional for a big time drug deal that he has planned. Part of this clean up involves selling off a package of weed that is in the garage. While cleaning up the garage a couple of the crooks spill toxic chemicals on the package of weed, turning it red. Ever the entrepreneurs they decide to dry the weed out and sell it to the locals at bargain rates, and make up for the cash shortfall out of their own pockets. All while this is happening a police detective and his new partner are investigating the boss, as they know something big is going down. We also see that the boss decides to have his daughter check in on the garage to make sure that the job is being done correctly. It just so happens that his daughter is a friend with a couple of stoners, who you guessed it, bought some of the red weed. So the daughter, her friends, the cops, and the criminals all end up arriving at the garage at the same time. This is all complicated even further by the fact that anyone who smoked the weed has now turned into zombies. The zombies have returned to score more weed and to eat flesh (they have the munchies!).

The Good: I know that the synopsis makes the plot sound complicated and confusing, but it really isn’t. The story is actually very interesting and entertaining. The director weaves the various stories together without making any of it really feel forced. I’ve sat thru many big budget Hollywood horror films that in spite of all of their resources couldn’t manage an interesting story, so this is very impressive to me. In addition many of the “featured” zombies look pretty damn good for a low budget feature. I did hope for a bit more gore, but they did have a limited budget so I can’t really complain.

The Bad: Small low budget movies tend to have many of the same issues. Detroit Blood City is no exception. Most of the cast is pretty good for a low budget film, but a couple of the actors are pretty bad. The most distracting of these actors portrays Detective Frank Michel. He is very wooden, sounding as if he is reading his lines off of a cue card. In some of the scenes the lighting and sound are not so great. Most of these scenes are outside, where most independent filmmakers have problems. As I said above the featured zombies look pretty good, but the makeup effects on some of the background zombies leaves something to be desired.

The Score: 2 out of 4

If you are a fan of independent zombie films, as I am, you really should take a look at this film. I know that I’m looking forward to what they do next. While I found this film to be a bit rough this group has talent, and lots of it. Given a bigger budget and a few more feature films under their belt I have no doubt they are going to be big.

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