Year: 1988
Runtime: 86min
Director: Mark Goldblatt
Starring: Treat Williams, Joe Piscopo, Darren McGavin, Lindsay Frost, Clare Kirkconnell, Vincent Price.
Mixing different flavors together is a necessary component in bartending and ice cream manufacture. It also works in the motion picture industry, giving us some very interesting combinations, some of which sane men might not have melded together under any circumstances. Including this weird little vehicle starring Treat Williams and Joe Piscopo.
Basically this is Lethal Weapon with a healthy splash of Return of the Living Dead.
I think someone called it a horror comedy, but honestly there’s no horror here, despite some gross bits of carnage crafted by special effects maestro Steven Johnson. This is a straight up black comedy with elements of an action movie and it only takes a few minutes of screentime before the lunacy starts.
Treat Williams plays the unfortunately named Roger Mortis, a by-the-book cop saddled with Joe Piscopo as his partner, the more traditionally named Doug Bigelow. Both are good cops facing a new problem: Robbers who refuse to die after being riddled with lead.
Their investigation into this phenomenon leads to the startling discovery that all these robbers previously spent time in the city morgue, and since the ice coolers aren’t rented out as an Air BnB this leads our heroes to the logical conclusion that these dudes were former stiffs who just got up and went back to a life of crime. This in turn leads to a shady research lab, a weird table with glowy 1980s technology and computers, and finds Detective Mortis shoved into a decompression chamber located in a random hallway. Which, honestly, does seem like the sort of place an evil corporation would build their murder rooms. Right next to the employee water fountain.
Mortis doesn’t make it out alive, but this gives his partner a chance to test that fancy bit of tech in the next room. Turns out that, surprise surprise, it brings back the dead. Only with a bit of a catch. Our hero has only twelve hours to live. Er, “unlive”? Whatever, you get the drift.
Shades of D.O.A. aside, this movie is pretty much a straight up action flick, with a lot of shootouts and increasingly clever scenes involving Williams new partial-indestructibility. The actors quip in place of real dialog and the movie just zips along at a machine gun pace, not allowing us any time to dwell on the absurdity of the plot. It would be breezy good fun if it weren’t for the macabre air of death that lingers over the entire story.
This is the very definition of gallows humor. Even facing his own mortality, Williams remains surprisingly stoic, only letting his guard down a handful of times to reveal that he is, perhaps, still human. Meanwhile, the prospect of his partner’s imminent demise (or re-demise) doesn’t seem to faze Piscopo. It’s a very weird tone, heavy on the ultra-black comedy, and I don’t think everyone will appreciate it. Writer Terry Black (brother of the more well-known Shane!) handles the entire affair with a fatalism that is borderline nihilistic and very punk.
Death is as inevitable as life, and Dead Heat reminds of this by making sure that none of the characters are safe from the reaper’s touch, which is extremely surprising for what I expected to be just another paint-by-numbers action movie.
It’s just a shame that the actors don’t really help bring in a cohesive tone. Williams plays it pretty straight, with a lot of one-liners but includes a small amount of gravitas to remind us this is not an ordinary day at the office. Piscopo treats the whole thing like an extended stand-up routine, flexing his muscles and making really dumb jokes, though his is perhaps the most fatalistic viewpoint of all, encouraging his partner to try and enjoy what’s left of his life, even if it comes with a fast-approaching expiration date.
The rest of the cast includes Lindsay Frost as the head of PR for Dante Laboratories, who takes her role very seriously and with a hint of tragedy. She’s quite good though her character takes a little while to grow into something more than a minor roadblock for the heroes.
We also get a supporting appearance from Clare Kirkconnell as a doctor at the morgue who has romantic history with Mortis and a small but deliciously evil turn from Darren McGavin as her boss. Also included, perhaps just to lend credence to the off-beat 50’s sci-fi tone, is a short cameo from the master himself, Vincent Price.
Everyone seems to have a different idea of what this movie should be and they all act accordingly. Maybe it’s the fault of the director, Mark Goldblatt. A noted editor, this is one of only two films Goldblatt directed (the other being the Dolph Lundgren Punisher released the next year) and though his experience as an editor is on full display with the movie darting along at a rapid pace, it doesn’t seem to have as much consistency as it needs.
It does, however, feature a battle with a gaggle of undead chickens ready for the rotisserie. And that means it is special.
I don’t know if everyone will appreciate the mix of destructive shootouts with elements of splatter comedy, but I can promise that this is unlike anything else I’ve ever seen. It is laugh-out-loud funny, startling in its frank examination of the seeming immortality of the average action movie hero, and it has a charming cast with which to guide us into this weird world.
The punk vibe extends to the bulk of the themes, including the idea that rugged individualism can disrupt a toxic system, though whether that individuality is enough to win against overwhelming odds is up for debate. All the money in the world is not enough for the collection of elderly businessmen and women who help to fund this sci-fi zombie-machine. They have already “won” in the traditional sense, with success both personally and professionally. But they fear losing against the unrelenting force of death, so they exploit the have-nots for their own gain, and to hopefully create the ability to conquer the only threat their money won’t cure.
And in case this bout of freshman philosophy is turning you off, the movie also contains a fight with a giant reanimated cow carcass and a climax featuring a zombie Treat Williams armed with a submachine gun and motorcycle.
It’s a satisfying action-comedy, though perhaps it will not please everyone. The perfect definition of a cult film.
