Tempers flare as a few small town friends battle with a local witch in another Tempe/Full Moon SOV co-production entitled Dead and Rotting. Three small town boys "hire" a couple of local stoners to aggravate an old woman (who may be a witch) by throwing rocks through her window. Things go awry when the teens decide to boil the old woman's cat instead (a cat that may actually be her son). Hell bent on revenge, the old woman Abigail, transforms herself into a seductive temptress (played by the lovely Ms. Debbie Rochon) ultimately seducing and bedding each of the three men. Using their rapidly birthed spawn to exact her revenge, the three demon boys Abigail creates hack and slash their way through these fellas one by one. Ms. Abigail in turn teaches each of these gentlemen a lesson in what it feels like to be alive, yet dead and rotting at the same time. Ouch!

Definitely one of the upper echelon films in the SOV Tempe library Dead and Rotting makes for quite an enjoyable viewing experience. Once again, much like other Tempe SOV outings, Dead and Rotting retains a look that surpasses its actual budget in spades. The film has a professional and polished look that quite often seems to be missing from your average SOV outing. Story wise, well it's not all that original. However, in many a Tempe film, familiar subject matter is usually brought forth and presented in a refreshingly unique way and Dead and Rotting is no exception to this rule. The film, which runs a comfortable 72 minutes never overstays its welcome and moves at a nice brisk pace. Character development in a film such as this is key and I'm pleased to announce that it's handled quite well here. The film does contain a few rough spots (a few key acting moments are sub par etc.) but for the most part, everything seems to fall right into place.

While not destined to be a classic, if accepted at face value the true merits of Dead and Rotting are hard to deny. The film itself never feels exploitative or excessive. Gore, nudity and all matters of adult subject mater seem to have their place within the familiar yet well crafted tale.

Dead and Rotting is presented in an anamorphic widescreen transfer and is quite pleasing to the eye. SOV means no film of course, so what we're left with a nice clean and crisp picture. I didn't really notice any moments of artifacting or compression problems, many of the dark scenes are handled quite well. Colors are nice and sharp with excellent definition and the widescreen framing really helps to give the film a real cinematic quality.

Audio is presented in a glorious 5.1 digital mix and Tempe manages to continue their tradition of excellent audio tracks for their recent SOV productions. While the audio track doesn't utilize too many directional effects, ambient sounds do seem to fill the room at just about all key points in the production. The score is quite impressive (and effective) for such a low budget production.

Once again, Tempe does not skimp on the extras, this disc is packed to the brim with bonus goodness. First up is a feature length commentary with Director David P. Barton, actor Tom Hoover and guest "ghoul" David Greathouse. Next up are a host of brief featurettes including Make-Up effects footage (13 minutes), an interview with director Barton (14 minutes), a vintage short film from Barton entitled Howard Street Blues (17 minutes) and behind the scene FX footage from the 80's (5 minutes). Next up are two still galleries, and an isolated music score track. Hold onto your hats folks cause as they say, that ain't all, there's more. Also included is a bonus short film from Low Budget Pictures entitled Filthy McNasty that runs about 45 minutes (also viewable with or without audio commentary). The short is cheap and stupid (but also a lot of fun) and it happens to also star the lovely Ms. Debbie Rochon. Any description I give this film will not do it any justice, so you'll have to just check it out for yourself. Let's just say that it follows with the tradition of other Tempe and Troma type films (but even cheaper and dumber, in a good way, mmmkaaay?). If you can just check it out and dig it for what it's worth, then you are OK with me. I didn't like the short as much as I did Mulva: Zombie Ass Kicker (featured on Tempe's Hell Asylum DVD) but I did get a kick out of it nonetheless. Finally, things are rounded out with some trailers for other Tempe titles. Also worth noting is that while there are chapter stops, there is no chapter selection screen on the main menu and the extras on the disc differ slightly than those listed on the packaging. Not to worry as there is plenty of bonus goodness to be found here.

Overall we have a solid and fun filled presentation from Tempe. I dug the flick and all the extras a great deal. Fans of Tempe and low budget horror in general would be wise to give this disc a once over. I'm not going to lie to you, it's certainly not for all tastes, but for the cheap price tag and amount of goodies packed within, this disc is bound to make many Tempe and low budget flick fans very happy.

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