Shadow: Dead Riot (2006)

Shadow: Dead Riot: Directed by Derek Wan. With Tony Todd, Carla Greene, Nina Hodoruk, Michael Quinlan. Evil voodoo-practicing serial killer Shadow gets executed for murdering pregnant women. Twenty years later the prison Shadow was put to death at has been turned into an experimental women’s penitentiary. Tough and fiercely autonomous new inmate Solitaire has some kind of link with Shadow. When Shadow and his lethal shambling zombie minions are resurrected, it’s up to Solitaire to stop them.

“I have never even seen a manga so approached this movie with no preconceptions or prior knowledge of the characters. A bit like seeing a Batman movie without ever having read a comic, I imagine. The result was a very pleasant surprise. The principle characters were largely convincing, the photography was very attractive and the story line reasonable given the limits of the genre. The fact that it kept me interested for the entire 2+ hours speaks for itself. I found the sub-titles very effective in keeping me involved which is normally not the case. I am not sure if they are integral to the movie or a third party add-on, but were much better than a dubbed English version which would have taken away much of the authenticity of the movie. I am looking forward to the next episode.”