AllMovie

A group of low-budget filmmakers find the plot of their horror movie coming true as they're besieged by the undead in this goofy, gory fright flick. David Poe (Eric Clawson), a first-time film director, breaks into an abandoned hospital with his cast and crew to film a cheap zombie picture. David's bossy sister, Nina (Kimberly Pullis), is bankrolling the effort; his other sister, Shelly (Wendy Speake), is starring opposite would-be matinee idol Eric (Benjamin Morris). In one scene, the pair play a female pathologist and the ghoul who kills and then makes love to her on an autopsy table. Unfortunately, such footage has to be scrapped when Nina shows up and decides she's starring in the film herself. As the crew scrambles to accommodate this casting change, unpaid production assistant Topaz (Jamie Donahue) stumbles upon a mysterious, deserted laboratory that contains a very theatrical-looking coffin. David decides to incorporate the sarcophagus into his film -- even after he opens it and a dead body pops out. But when the filmmakers activate the machinery hooked up to the coffin in hopes of making it look even cooler on film, zombies begin to pour forth from an interdimensional vortex. Soon, the hospital becomes a scene of carnage and horror as the cast and crew try to figure out how to defeat head ghoul Eibon (Matt Stephens) and his minions. Filmed in ten days for a reported 150,000 dollars, The Dead Hate the Living marked the debut of writer/director Dave Parker.