(1983)
2.5
Jeremy Wheeler
Death Warmed Up has the honor of being New Zealand's first all-out gore flick, beating Peter Jackson's Bad Taste by a few years and cementing it in history as a long-lost horror gem whose core audience has yet to uncover it. Winner of the 1984 Grand Prix award at the International Festival of Fantasy and Science Fiction Films, whose jury featured none other than the infamous surrealist auteur Alejandro Jodorowsky, David Blyth and his film were jutted into the spotlight, edging out another little horror outing that just so happened to be there that year -- namely, Joe Dante's Gremlins. What makes Death Warmed Up stand out from the very start is its gratuitous love for the red stuff, mixed with a visual flair that echoes the color palette of Mario Bava or even Dario Argento in a roundabout low-budget way. There's also a kinetic pulse to this juicy little gem that's rarely found in horror, either past or present. Sure, it's a fact that most of the film makes zero sense (especially toward the end), but who needs plot when you basically throw a bunch of teens headed by an albino dreamboat and sadistic mutants together in a psychedelic hospital? Recommended alone for the brain surgery scene with the team of sexy nurses, Death Warmed Up has got the early '80s horror juice that just keeps on giving.
Death Warmed Up on AllMovie
Death Warmed Up (1983)
