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Cops Doug (Joe Piscopo) & Roger (Treat Williams) are trailing down the
Crash-&-Burn-gang, who have committed a sereis of extremely brutal
robberies in broad daylight & who have the ability to survive gunshots.
Inevitably it turns out the Crash-&-Burn-gang are a bunch of zombies, &
their trail can easily be followed to Dante Pharmaceuticals, where our 2 heroes
really do find conclusive evidence in the company's invovlement in producing
zombies & having them rob places.
However, finding this evidence costs Roger his life. Good thing though, that
coroner Rebecca (Clare Kirkconnell), incidently Roger's ex, is pretty handy
with machines, finds out how Dante Pharmaceutical's ressurection machine works
in no time & brings Roger back to life (after death). Snitch is, he has
only 12 hours before decomposing sets in - & he wants to make this time
count & nail those behind his untimely death.
Their first clue leads Roger & Doug to Brandy (Lindsay Frost), Dante's
PR-manager, who is initially rather reluctant to help them, only when a gang of
zombies attack her appartment too is she ready to provide Roger & Doug with
some more clues, the first of which leads them to Thool's (Keye Luke) butchery,
who not only stores dead meat in his shop, but also the means to revive it -
which almost proves fatal for our heroes, since he did happen to store the
torso of a bull in his shop too - which is not at all pleased about his
condition. Roger Doug & brandy come out of it unscathed though, &
despite Thool managed to escape, they find the decisive clue in his office,
that gives them an idea of the intention behind it all:
Thool, obviously in league with Dante Pharmaceuticals, promises rich people
eternal life through the resurrection machine, but in turn get half their
fortune - & the heads behind it all seem to be Thool, Arthur P.Loudermilk
(Vincent Price), incidently Brandy's father, and ... who knows, but he has to
have access to corpses.
However, while doing further investigations, Doug is killed, & Roger
sees Brandy - i9ncidently also a zombie - decomposing before his very eyes. But
he also finds the real culprit, the county's chief coroner McNabb (Darren
McGavin). Unfortunately, McNabb is not unprepared, & locks Roger into an
ambulance, together with the corpse of Rebecca, whom he has since also seen fit
to kill. There Roger is to spend all of his remaining 45 minutes of life, only
he is not kept down that easily & soon crashes the ambulance in a massive
accident that would have killed him was he not already dead, & he enters
McNAbb's offices again, right at a promotions party for the resurrectin
machine, that McNabb, Thool & Loudermilk hold for very rich people (the
only ones who can afford to live forever). But McNabb has another ace up his
sleeve, zombie Doug, who he believes was braindead long enough to have
forgotten Roger ... only McNabb was wrong, & indstead of killing his old
buddy as told, Doug kills McNabb, then the 2 zombie-cops blow up the
resurrection machine - & Thool, Loudermilk & all the rich people with
it. End.
Unfortunately, the idea for Dead Heat - zombies investigating their
own deaths - sounds better than the finished product, as the movie can neither
decide between being a straight action film, a comedy or horror, & has some
unnecessatry bittersweet episodes thrown in to make it worse, nor does it
manage to blend these elements to an entertaining stew. Also some typical
action flick oneliners that are supposed to be funny are just horrible, &
the mediocre lead actors are not always capable to carry the movie.
On the plus side however, Dead Heat has some really inspired scenes (best of
all the scene in the butchery, where our heroes are attacked by revived meat),
& genre faves like Vincent Price, Keye Luke & Darren McGavin do lend
this movie an unbeatable & charming b-movie-aura.
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