''The Dead and the Damned'' (also known as ''Cowboys & Zombies'') is a 2010 American

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

directed by Rene Perez, written by Perez and Barry Massoni, and starring David Lockhart, Camille Montgomery, Rick Mora, and Robert Amstler. The film depicts a meteorite that unleashes a zombie virus in the

American Old West The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...

Plot

During the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...

, in the 1840s, Mortimer receives a bounty for Brother Wolf, a Native American accused of rape. Mortimer recruits a prostitute, Rhiannon, as bait to lure out Wolf. However, Mortimer becomes dubious of the charges once he meets Wolf. Meanwhile, a group of prospectors unleash a zombie virus when they attempt to mine a meteorite. Mortimer, Rhiannon, and Wolf must band together to stop the zombies.

Cast

* David Lockhart as Mortimer * Camille Montgomery as Rhiannon *

Rick Mora Rick Mora (born January 22, 1975) is an American model and actor. He claims Apache and Yaqui descent. Filmography * '' Turok: Son of Stone'' (2008) * "I Need You Now" video (song sung by Agnes) (2009) * '' The Dead and the Damned'' (2010) * '' ...

as Brother Wolf * Robert Amstler as The German

Production

Filming took place near

Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ar ...

Release

''The Dead and the Damned'' premiered at the Another Hole In the Head Film Festival on July 17, 2010. It was released on DVD in the US on July 26, 2011, and in the UK on August 1, 2011.

Reception

Jim Harrington of the ''

San Jose Mercury News ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidiar ...

'' called the plot "as ludicrous as it is fun". Rod Lott of the ''

Oklahoma Gazette The ''Oklahoma Gazette'' is a free alt-weekly paper distributed throughout the Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. T ...

'' called it "proof that bargain-basement zombie flicks, which are dime-a-dozen these days, shouldn't be made". Gareth Jones of

Dread Central Dread Central is an American website founded in 2006 that is dedicated to horror news, interviews, and reviews. It covers horror films, comics, novels, and toys. Dread Central has won the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best Website f ...

rated it 1.5/5 stars and wrote, "With too little plot and too little visual imagination to justify a feature runtime, we're left with plodding scenes of predictable exposition, poorly executed action and lingering gazes at bare breasts peppered with occasional minutes of something approaching genuine entertainment." Ben Bussey of Brutal as Hell wrote that despite its amateurishness the film "remains a reasonable bit of fun so long as your expectations aren't too high". HorrorTalk rated it 2.5/5 stars and wrote, "''The Dead and the Damned'' had a lot of potential, on both sides of the camera, and it could have succeeded with a bit more experience." Alex DiVincenzo of HorrorNews.Net wrote, "If there's not a gun fight or a zombie chase on screen, the movie is boring." Writing in ''The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia, Volume 2'', academic

Peter Dendle Peter Dendle is a professor of English at Penn State Mont Alto, teaching classes on folklore, 20th and 21st century representations of the Middle Ages, Old and Middle English (language and literature), and the monstrous (in film, folklore, and s ...

called it "mostly a zombie shooting gallery".

Sequel

A loosely connected sequel, '' The Dead and the Damned 2'', was released in October 2014.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dead and the Damned, The 2010 films 2010 horror films 2010 independent films 2010s Western (genre) horror films American Western (genre) horror films American independent films American zombie films Films set in the 1840s Films about Native Americans Films set in California Films shot in California Films about the California Gold Rush 2010s English-language films 2010s American films