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Die and Let Live (2006)
Over the last year or so I've found myself coming more and more familiar with IWC (Idiots With Cameras) Films, and I must say that I'm glad I can say that. After being pretty under whelmed by director Justin Channell's 2005 effort Raising the Stakes, I was still very curious to see what the young filmmaker had up his sleeve. Especially because I believe that Raising the Stakes was made when Channell was only 17 years of age. This time around it was a bit older, and an incredible amount wiser Channell behind IWC Films newest effort Die and Let Live.
Die and Let Live is a film about two buddies who decide to throw a party so one of them can impress a girl that he likes. At the same time there is a medical facility nearby that just so happens to be testing subjects for an unknown virus that happens to raise the dead. Then as you can probably figure out one thing leads to another and the house party is interrupted by the walking dead, leaving our party hosts Benny and Smalls to take action into their own hands.
I have to give director Justin Channell along with Zane Crosby and Josh Lively a lot of credit for putting this movie together. They managed to make a micro budgeted zombie film that wasn't cliché, that manages to be extremely witty and humorous, and managed to put together a better zombie film than the majority of low to no budget filmmakers out there today. Die and Let Live has an extremely cool attitude that just shows up on the TV screen when you are watching it that just radiates onto you the viewer. They managed to write characters that you identify with, and want to see succeed throughout the movie and feel a part of it every step of the way. The movie is one part teen sex comedy, and another part Night of the Living Dead. Regardless of how many of these zombie movies come out, very rarely do they actually attempt to do something new or different. That is exactly what they managed to do here, and it was a pretty damn good attempt to do so, especially because Channell is only a 19 year old filmmaker here. Also, keep in mind that I'm not saying this is good because Channell is so young, it's just good overall. The jokes are well timed, the gore is good, and I felt that they managed to improve vastly over their last film especially in the pacing department. Die and Let Live is a movie that moves without slow parts, manages to build characters, and end's in a way that surprised me as well.
As far as the technical aspects of the film go, they are pretty top notch for a low budget affair. The sound was good, I can't really find any lighting problems, and the writing of the film was impressive. I found a lot of the humor in the movie to be well timed and perfectly acceptable as well. I was really impressed at how the humor played off of the actors in the movie too. A lot of times in low budget pictures you aren't dealing with well trained actors, and that sometimes makes it difficult for comedy to come off well. But it's pretty clear that only minutes into the movie that the actors pretty much have down not only the jokes, but how they should be delivered and it works well.
Overall I would highly recommend this movie to not only horror or zombie movie fans, but I thought it worked well as a comedy piece too. I pretty much looked at this film in the aspect of Shaun of the Dead, but on a more of a teenage level (with its characters) and I can definitely see it reaching its expected audience. I say good job to the guys at IWC Films and I can't wait to see what else they are going to have for us. Now out on Heretic Films the DVD has tons of extras to make any DVD collector happy. It has commentary with director Justin Channell, a behind the scenes featurette, deleted scenes, outtakes, and trailers from Heretic Films.
-Rating ***
-Ed Demko
