Last Rites of the Dead is set in a world where the dead don't stay dead, any freshly deceased person returns to life as a zombie. Office worker Angela (Gina Ramsden) is shot dead by her abusive boyfriend Josh (Joshua Nelson) but she doesn't stay dead for long, Angela quickly learns that being a zombie is difficult. Your skin rots, you have no legal rights & you are treated as dirt by the living. As the debate rages over what should be done about the living dead a section of society who are against zombies having equal rights set up their own terrorist organisations who persecute the zombie population as they try to get on with their lives (death's?) in normal society. Josh is one such extremist & joins one such organisation & uses his knowledge of Angela to help further his cause...<br /><br />Edited, written, co-produced & directed by Matt Fratto who also co-composed the music score & also known under the title Zombies Anonymous I have to say I thought this was crap despite all the glowing reviews from people who seem to have seen it at some obscure film festival & somehow that makes it great. Unfortunately I had to endure the full almost two hour cut of this crap rather than the shorter US DVD version which apparently makes no sense but would have thankfully lasted for twenty odd minutes less, I just have no luck at all. Last Rites of the Living Dead is an all too obvious take on the issue of mass immigration & racist attitudes. I guess the filmmakers were trying to go down the George A. Romero route by mixing zombies & (rubbish unconvincing) gore with a little bit of social commentary & satire but fail miserably, I will give Last Rites of the Dead some credit as the initial ten or fifteen minutes are quite good as the script focuses on the plight of a zombie in the real world, the fact they wouldn't be entitled to any money or have any rights, adverts on telly for make-up to hide rotting skin, the issue of termination centres & the basic core of the film the racist attitudes of the living. But once all the clever little allegories & references are out of the way including a support group for zombies in which they call themselves the 'mortally challenged' the film focuses on the battle between some left wing Nazi style terrorist group who attack & kill zombies & Angela & her struggles to survive in the world as one of the living dead. The plot is poor, there's some crap about a zombie cult which in a way exonerates the racists & what they are doing, the character's are poor, the dialogue is rubbish with every other word being a profanity because that's as imaginative as the writers can be & the film never elaborates or builds on it's central premise & the issues & ideas it first brings up. I also thought the film was incredibly boring with poor narrative & a very bitty plot that falls apart at the end& becomes a mess.<br /><br />Don't let anyone con you into thinking this is gory, sure there's a bit of blood but it's very poorly realised with very watery blood & poor make-up effects created by the interestingly named 'Demonic Pumpkins' whoever they are. There's some decapitations, some severed heads placed on stakes, there's a few exploding heads, a few bites, a bit of flesh eating, some blood splatter & a really poor scene in which Angela cuts Josh's testicles off & he just literally stands there & lats her do it. I'm not being funny but if I was stabbed in the groin I would at least take a few steps back to try & get away from my attacker, wouldn't you? Or would you just stand there & let them continue to mutilate you? The zombies in this aren't a bad lot really, they still have their human personalities & even though some like to eat human flesh most don't. Bless 'em. Shot almost entirely during the day in the cast & crews homes there's nothing scary here, there's no tension or atmosphere & the action & set-pieces are poorly handled throughout.<br /><br />Shot in New York this has all the production value & polish of one of my holiday videos, it looks awful with a really digital video camcorder look to it that I despise so much. I really wish filmmakers would go back to using grainy 35mmm film. Sigh. The acting by no-one I have ever heard of is up to the standard of the rest of the production, basically it's crap.<br /><br />Last Rites of the Living Dead had a few promising Romero style touches & ideas at the start but it all goes downhill very quickly & I thought it was pretty crap all round. It tries to clever & say something about immigration & racism in particular but it forgets all about the entertainment value in the process.