EI Cinema breaks their longstanding tradition in providing an ever growing and interested public with sexy cinema spoofs in order to enter the indie horror market. Well, it's not like they haven't been a presence in the horror market already, their Shock-O-Rama line has been providing a decent level of horror reissues as of late - but with Screaming Dead, EI Cinema officially opens the gates to their new line of original horror films; with about 4 more titles due for release over the course of the next year or so as well. How Screaming Dead stacks up against the other indie horror offerings currently available may actually surprise you, but in the end, it's really not all too different of a DVD presentation than EI Cinema fans may currently be used to.

Screaming Dead opens with a scantily clad young girl (EI Cinema's latest regular, cutie AJ Khan) tied down to some devious torture chamber device as an apparently evil photographer snaps photos of the terrified young girl (who really believes she is about to meet her doom, no...really!). Of course all of this is only a set up to let the viewer in on just how demented of a genius (s'posed genius, that is) photog Roger Neal (Joseph Ferrell) really is. Anyway, the deal is that Roger takes these sick B&W photos of young women and sells them for about 10,000 a piece (makes sense to me). Oddly enough, the young girls work for free, just for the prestigious opportunity to actually be in a Roger Neal photograph, or at least this is what his assistant Maura (played by Rachel Robbins) tells us.

Moving along, Roger has arranged to have his latest shoot o' perversion (with three lovely young ladies) to take place at an old abandoned mental institution. However, he wasn't counting on the 'chiseled out of stone' Sam Rogan (Rob Monkiewicz) to baby sit (and offer much friction) during the entire event. Now, who these lovely young women actually are is really not so meaningful, they have names like Lauren and Bridget (Misty Mundae), but this is really not all that important. Through the telling of a campfire tale (sans the actual campfire) it's brought to light that a maniac with a penchant for torturing young ladies used to reside in a secret room in the building (big surprise, huh?). Blah, blah, blah, and yadda, yadda, yadda, all hell breaks loose the final 20-minutes of the film.

As EI Cinema's maiden voyage into the deep blue yonder of the indie horror genre, Screaming Dead unfortunately misses the mark, in more ways than one. Taking aside the flawed yet familiar script, the real problem I had with the film is that nothing really happens (and I do mean, nothing). There's really little to no presence of any true horror elements until the final act, and what we're finally given, isn't really all that impressive to even be considered worth the wait. The characters are mostly uninteresting and their motivations are never truly justified. These girls are given more than one opportunity to leave (even after being shackled to their beds by the creepy photog!) yet they NEVER do. Now I do understand having to make sacrifices in order to have a successful career, but this is just ridiculous with a capital 'R.' Aside from all this craziness, there's also a 20-minute segment in which the perverted photog can't decide if he wants to have the girls sleep alone, or in the same room...oh the drama! And what's with the hi-tech security/surveillance system in this hospital that's been closed for 50-years? Is the photog clever enough to wire all of this himself? And if so, when did he have time to do it? Did I even mention the dinner party yet? Why am I asking you these questions?

That being said, during the supplements, the cast and crew make no apologies for the good time they had hanging out in the abandoned hospital shooting a creep flick. So, how far can my critique actually go, if they all knew exactly what they were doing and really just had a big ole' blast a' doin' it? This is my dilemma as a critic. I'm usually a staunch supporter of EI Cinema, but this go round, I just can't give them the nod. Cause I just didn't like it.

Audio and video quality is quite fine as the full frame shot on video image looks about as one would expect and the mono audio is for the most part, quite clear. Extras included turn out to be more entertaining than the feature itself. Featurettes abound with a look at the cast and crew, a Misty retrospective and looks inside the films' theatrical screenings in both NY and the NJ Fango Weekend of Horrors event. The most interesting piece runs about 15-minutes and offers a fairly indepth look at the hospital itself. Through vintage photos and chats with the cast, crew and a former patient(!) this piece stands as the most entertaining portion of the entire disc, I didn't want it to end. Also included are a still gallery and trailers for future 'original' Shock-O-Rama horror flicks (and a nifty easter egg you won't have to hunt too far to find). I have to admit, the trailers for all of EI Cinema's upcoming horror flicks look promising, and so I urge fans to keep an eye out for them, even if you find that Screaming Dead didn't quite cut the mustard.

While I wasn't thrilled with Screaming Dead, I have faith in the folks at EI Cinema, and look forward to the rest of their new horror line. Still, for fans of Misty (and her perky breasts), and the other EI Cinema gals (and their perky breasts), there may be something to be found within the walls of this film (perky breasts, perhaps?). Unfortunately, this time, it just wasn't for me.