Product Description

Violent criminals who can’t be killed are shooting up Los Angeles, and the investigation leads LAPD detectives Roger Mortis (Treat Williams) and Doug Bigelow (Joe Piscopo) to a mysterious pharmaceutical firm. But when Mortis is suddenly murdered, his coroner girlfriend and loose cannon partner discover the company’s ‘resurrection machine’ that turns Roger into the walking dead. Now the department’s most unstoppable cops must battle zombie hit men, a butcher shop gone berserk and the deceased industrialist (the legendary Vincent Price in one of his final film roles) who may hold the key to it all. But can Mortis solve his own homicide case before he completely decomposes? Darren McGavin (THE NIGHT STALKER), Lindsay Frost (THE RING) and Keye Luke (GREMLINS) co-star in this wild combination of explosive action thriller and gory zombie comedy directed by Mark Goldblatt (THE PUNISHER) and featuring grisly make-up effects and monsters by Steve Johnson (SPECIES).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #51695 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-01-27
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 84 minutes

Amazon.com


Stills from Dead Heat (Click for larger image)

Customer Reviews

No Admittance My Ass!
Dead Heat kinda fell into obscurity right away, so I don't think it even reached cult film status. This is one of those that you may have caught late at night in the old glory days of HBO. It's not a horror film, it's more of your typical buddy action/comedy in the vein of Tango & Cash, but with a few horror elements thrown in. Zombies are roaming around robbing jewlery stores and causing other assorted mischief due to a new resurrection machine. The zombies are pretty much normal looking people who are a pain in the ass to kill. Some are a little yucky and decomposed too. Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo are the cops on the case. Naturally, Williams being the straight cop and Piscopo being the wisecracking tough guy cop. I've always liked Williams, and though his performance is nothing to shout about, I enjoy his presence. Piscopo is another story. In general I do like Piscopo, but his role in this film is I guess a real love it or hate it affair. The humor of the movie is almost all set on him, yet he is probably the unfunniest wisecracking cop I have ever seen in a movie. He has absolutely no delivery and the jokes seem forced and just plain bad. It's strange coz he is so not funny that it actually becomes kinda funny. Funny for reasons other than intended. Plus, he's supposed to be a big, buff badass, yet he's always saying stuff like, "Oh, that's gross!", "That's really disgusting", and "I think I'm gonna throw up". These aren't tough guy lines, and he comes off sounding like a wuss. Steve Johnson's fx are pretty good. We have a mean looking mutant biker guy, a disintegrating woman, and a Chinese restaurant full of reanimated ducks and pigs and stuff. Williams' half melted face in the last 10 minutes looks good too. Some cool appearances here too, including Darren McGavin, who you may remember as the leg lamp obsessed dad in A Christmas Story("Oh, you should see what it looks like from out here!"). Vincent Price has a small walk on part as well. The leading lady is quite flat and boring. All in all, Dead Heat may be a cheap action/comedy, but it obviously had more money invested in it than other films of this type. The fx are top notch and the film really doesn't look that cheap at all. This is no masterpiece for sure, but I must say that I really miss this kind of film, coz stuff like this just isn't made anymore. Enjoy.

A Buddy Cop Movie With Zombies; Does It Get Any Better?
This is the epitome of the type of movie Anchor Bay releases on DVD, crisp, clean, clear and celestial. Dead Heat is by far a cult movie that can be seen as both an action and horror movie. Our leads, LAPD detectives Roger Mortis (Treat Williams) and Doug Bigelow (Joe Piscopo) are investigating crimes, which are being committed by people who are deceased. When Roger is killed during the investigation, he is brought back to life, by the same element that is resurrecting these criminals, to solve the mystery.

The movie itself isn't suppose to be taken seriously, at least that is how I watched it. Joe Piscopo provides many one liners that are really funny, and one liners can be hard to pull off. Treat Williams also provides some dry and wry humor. It's cool that Vincent Price was in this movie, which gives it the official horror stamp of approval. There are plenty of dummies, fake blood, and cheesy effects to keep you going. It also has this buddy cop vibe to it, now it isn't Lethal Weapon or anything, but still a buddy cop movie. The sour cream on the taco is it was made in the 1980s! So if you love those late night cop movies and have a taste for things that are undead, you get them both in the same eighty-four minutes!

Laughed my arse off
I saw this in the theater way back when and I thought it was hilarious so I went and saw it again. Treat Williams is a cop who dies and yet he lives on and decomposes throughout the film. Piscipoe is not funny normally - this is the only time you'll ever see him being funny. The film was not well received and I think it has somewhat of a cult following since only a handful of people actually liked it. Haven't seen it in ages so I don't know how well it would hold up. I remember it being really cool though. This is what 80's movies were all about... being really terrible with cheesey special effects, but entertaining as all hell. I won't buy it until it comes to DVD.