“Dead Meat” is describe by its creator as: “Drew and Michael’s world is turned upside down when they learn that over night, the world around them has become a Zombie Apocalypse.” Another work of art brought to you my friends in Raymore.

  
“Dead Meat” is directed by my friend, Michael Berry. Michael is a senior at Raymore Peculiar High School and is the owner of Like A Fox Studios. Like A Fox Studios has come out with a number of short films like “The Shawshank Suspension” and “Baking Bread”, but “Dead Meat” is the very first full length film. 

I will be referring by character name a lot so I’ll go ahead and post the cast list:

Michael- Michael Berry

Drew- Drew Brown

Sam- Sam Osborne

Nate/Chase- Nate Weber

Grant- Sawyer Bletscher

Warren- Brooks Mackender

Wayne- Mattathias Davis

Zeke- Dane Schnake

Crocky- Jonah Desnuex

Hoyte- Cameron Perry

Natalie- Julienne Graebner

Parker- Parker Hauptmann

A number of extras were castes to play various zombies as well.

As usual before I give my final rating I will go through the pros and cons of the film. I tried my best not to be biased considering these guys are my friends, but given that this is my 4th time watching “Dead Meat” I could finally pick through it.

Pros:

1. The group that is Sam, Nate, Michael, and Drew are a very personable all boy friends group complete with jokes, video game talk, and dumb hair cuts. The group is a very relatable and brings an aspect of normality to an otherwise not so normal story. I know most of these boys and the chemistry is just as good on screen as it is off screen.

2. One of my favorite parts of this movie is the soundtrack. The songs were very well picked and appropriate. And I’m a sucker for “You Make My Dreams Come True” by Halls & Oates.

3. Quite a few nods to spongebob in this movie. “Old Bold and Brash” as well as some of the classic music makes their appearance. Cute.

4. The comedy in this movie is very well done. You can tell the boys had a lot of fun creating humor that fit the script and it all fits rather well. I think it’s a type of comedy that all ages can get into.

5. The montage is one of the best parts of the movie. Again, “You Make My Dreams Come True” is never a bad choice for a montage jam.

6. I really enjoyed the acting of everyone in the movie. Everyone was well cast and did the script justice in the comedic and dramatic scenes. The cast was personable, well rehearsed, and over all good actors.

Cons:

1. Small thing, but throughout the whole movie I was very curious to where the whole zombie epidemic got started. I know the movie opens with 3 little girls infected, but there is never clarification to how that happens. Also where the heck are any adults? It didn’t play too much of a problem for me, but just enough to make the list.

2. Technically the movie is pretty decent for a homemade movie. I had a couple of issues here and there with lighting and camera stability, but nothing to major. Considering the whole movie was filmed and edited by high school student errors were to be expected, but overall it was alright.

3. I find it weird that part way through the movie Sam and Natalie (played by Julienne Graebner) and drew get haircuts. Continuity errors are expected when you’ve been filming for “um years” as told to me by cast member Jonah Desnuex.

4. Make up was okay, but could have been utilized better. “The I like turtles kid had better make up.” -Brooke Gerecke

5. 1 word: injuries. Drew’s arm magically healed? Michael has no major concussion? Sam & Nate escape a dramatic road incident with no problems on them or the car? Not realistic, but it was a goofy additive to the goofy movie… I mean Dead Meat.

6. Couple of character breaks here and there, but expected when you think you are as funny as these boys think they are.

7. The teenage girl in me wished that Natalie and Michael’s love story could progress more, but I get its a zombie movie and not a Nicholas Sparks movie.

Follow ups:

I think if any character should get a spin off it’s Carlos played by Brandon Steele. Irrelevant, but still. I also really enjoyed Parker’s character a lot in the movie. Natalie, Grant, and Warren were also very well portrayed and I enjoyed watching their performances. 

Overall:

I think the fact that a troupe of high school kids could pull off a full length film is just incredible. The movie is relatively well done. Of course there were flaws here and there, but overall these kids should be proud of their product. I’ve enjoyed the movie every time I’ve watched it and I’m glad I got to be there for the premier. My rating is solely based off of my unbiased opinion and the thought of improvement. I also altered my harsh movie scale to fit to a homemade movie, which I haven’t seen many of, but I figured it wouldn’t be fair to judge this movie on my regular scale. Congratulations to the cast and crew of the movie. I cannot wait to see more.

Rating: 6/10

If you would like to watch the movie it has been broken down into 13 parts on YouTube. Click HERE for episode 1 and watch the full movie.