Review: Art of the Dead

An art collector, Douglas Winter (Richard Grieco) finally completes his most sought after collection but the paintings almost instantly drive him insane. Douglas murders his whole family in a fit of rage before the art turns on him. Flash forward an unspecified amount time to an art auction. The dealer Tess Barryman (Tara Reid), now in possession of the appropriately named "Seven Deadly Sins" collection finds a buyer in the architect, Dylan Wilson (Lukas Hassel) and his wife Gina (Jessica Morris) . Not heeding the one-eyed priest's (Robert Donavan) warning the two have the paintings shipped to their home. With out spoiling any more of the story, this is where the plot takes a turn for strange in the absolute best kind of way.

Is this movie cheesy? Of course, but more importantly it's entertaining. Director Rolfe Kanefsky is able to strike a decent balance between seriousness and campy that you only see in the most revered B-Movies. Unfortunately budget constraints and a few of the performances hold this one back from achieving that type of cult status. That being said I would still recommend giving this movie a go. If you're into crazy surreal horror, writers Michael and Sonny Mahal's story is unique enough to keep you entertained through out. This film would be perfect to throw on with a group of friends, order a pizza, have some drinks kick back and enjoy this absurd tale. If you go in with the mindset that you're not going to be watching some over-priced, over hyped, block buster horror movie, you give yourself the best chance of appreciating this film. Shout out to the fx team on the outlandish goat demon costume, it really needs to be seen in action. As well as Lukas Hassel's preformance as Dylan. His acting pre-possession by one of the paintings was one of the better performances I've seen in a low budget flick in some time. As of October 1st, Art of the Dead is available on VOD.

7/10

*Available on Amazon Prime Video