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Directed by Joseph Contegiacom. Starring Ross Kelly, Stephanie Marchese, Miguel Martinez, Mike Hatfield, Audrey Anderson, Vic Browder, Jocelyn Tucker. Horror, USA, 89mins, Cert 18.

Release date: 13/09/2010. Special features: none.

A young couple set off on a desert-racing excursion in Mexico. Several other people, including a professor, join them on the trip. The real motive for the professor joining the party soon becomes realized in a bloody battle with a skeleton army in the Baja desert.

The film begins in 1590 with a group of soldiers looking for a hidden treasure. As the men pick up the gold, the moon turns red and they are attacked by an army of skeleton warriors who have been cursed to remain as guardians of the gold.

The story fast-forwards four hundred years and we meet Amy and John, a young and in love couple, on the way to do some desert racing (a birthday surprise from Amy). They arrive at their destination to be met by the organisers, their professor and some fellow students.

The first day gets off to a pretty uneventful start and that evening they eat and tell stories. The professor tells the group about the gold that he is secretly looking for and spooks them with a tale of missing people.

The following day the professor disappears and we see him secretly meet three dodgy characters that are for some reason required to help him locate the gold even though he knows where to look for it. They double cross him and tell him that they are taking all of the gold for themselves. Just as one of them pick up a piece of the gold the moon turns red and the skeletons come to life, so to speak. The skeletons slaughter them. Meanwhile, John is worried about the sudden disappearance of the professor and he and the racing organiser head out to look for him. They stumble across the cave where the men have been killed but remarkably the professor is still alive, though he is acting rather strangely.

They get back to the campsite with the skeletons in pursuit and a series of fight scenes ensue with the cast dying one at a time. The finale sees Amy and John trying to survive the army of the dead in a ‘dramatic’ showdown between them and the skeletons and the use of a high voltage power generator!

The film was disappointing to say the least. You hardly ever see the skeletons, just lots of shadows on walls. They don’t really appear until over halfway through the film. At one point a whole legion approach and yet we only see a few of the skeletons fighting the racers. This is clearly due to the film's very limited budget. The story doesn’t run smoothly and the characters are fairly boring. Add to this some awful CGI and you have Army of the Dead!

The worst effects are the gore effects, which are mainly done with CGI rather than by conventional make-up. The CGI blood is really terrible and looks very amateurish. The one scene sees the skeletons sword tearing through the flesh, but instead of it being gruesome it just looks really fake and a little laughable. As well as the blood, the explosions and fire are substandard and a little cheesy. As for the rating, we are not really sure why this has bee given a certificate 18 as there is nothing that makes it anymore than a 15: there is no sex, drugs, gore and very little violence.

This film sort of felt as though it was trying for the same style as Evil Dead Army of Darkness (the title emphasizing this) with the army of skeletons attacking people, but the film fails to live up to the reputation. The skeletons are so badly done and very unconvincing, and the lead protagonist lacks the zaniness and buoyancy of Bruce Campbell.

Special features: none.

Maria Phillips and Gareth Martin.

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