Main Cast: Treat Williams, Joe Piscopo, Lindsay Frost, Darren McGavin, Vincent Price
Release Year: 1988
Country: US
Run Time: 86 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Although many genre filmmakers have managed to blend horror and humor with great success, movies employing this formula often run the risk of both elements canceling each other out, resulting in a horror comedy that is neither scary nor funny. Alas, Dead Heat is a textbook example of this kind of failure. It details the weird misadventures of a pair of mismatched L.A. cops -- the straitlaced and by-the-book Roger Mortis (Treat Williams) and wisecracking loose cannon Doug Bigelow (muscle-headed Saturday Night Live alum Joe Piscopo). Their quest is to reach the heart of a sinister crime ring that employs indestructible undead henchmen. In a strange twist, their inept handling of the case results in both cops -- first Williams, then Piscopo -- being killed in action and subsequently reanimated in a secret laboratory managed by the barely seen Vincent Price (whose walk-on role is more entertaining than the combined performances of the two leads). The potential for "splatstick" comedy in the mode of Evil Dead 2 or Peter Jackson's Bad Taste is defeated by two major obstacles: first, the painfully unfunny mugging of Piscopo, who was unwisely allowed to ad-lib much of his performance; and second, the MPAA's trimming of several minutes from Steve Johnson's sensational makeup effects in order to avoid the dreaded X rating -- including a clever scene involving a zombie go-go girl played by Linnea Quigley. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
Clare Kirkconnell - Rebecca Smythers; Keye Luke - Mr. Thule; Ben Mittleman - Bob; Peter Kent - Smitty; Monty Ash - Walter; Chip Heller - Wilcox; Lew Hopson - Whitfield; Monica Lewis - Mrs. Von Heiserberg; Pons Maar - Pool Zombie; Tom Nolan - Jonas; Peggy O'Brien - Jewelry Store Manager; Yvonne Peattie - Gertrude Bellman; Robert Picardo - Lieutenant Herzog; Martha Quinn - Newscaster; Ivan Roth - End Zombie; Dawan Scott - Pool Zombie; Mel Stewart - Capt. Mayberry; Prof. Toru Tanaka - Butcher; Ron Taylor - Shoot Out Zombie; Beth Toussaint - Lab Technician; Shane Black - Patrolman; Clarence Brown - Harry Lathamn; Monty Cox - Guard; Steven R. Bannister - Thing; Cate Casplin - Salewoman; H. Ray Huff - Cop; Steve Itkin - Freman; Mike Saad - Guard; Pamela Vansant - Lab Technician
Credit
John Gary Steele - Art Director, Allen Alsobrook - Associate Producer, Steve Jacobs - Casting, Michael Meltzer - Co-producer, Lisa Jensen - Costume Designer, Mike Topoozian - First Assistant Director, Mark Goldblatt - Director, Harvey Rosenstock - Editor, Ernest Troost - Composer (Music Score), Craig Stearns - Production Designer, Robert Yeoman - Cinematographer, David Helpern - Producer, Greta Grigorian - Set Designer, Patrick Read Johnson - Special Effects, Steve Johnson - Special Effects, Walt Martin - Sound/Sound Designer, Dan Bradley - Stunts, Mario Roberts - Stunts, Dan Bradley - Stunts Coordinator, Patrick Read Johnson - Special Effects Supervisor, Terry Black - Screenwriter, Darren Star - Screenwriter
Dead Heat is a 1988 movie about an LAPD police officer, Roger Mortis (Treat Williams), killed while attempting to arrest zombies who have been reanimated by the head of Dante Laboratories in order to carry out violent armed robberies.
Plot
Resuscitated through the same means as his adversaries, Mortis attempts to track down his killer in the short time he has before his body crumbles to dust, although he now has the advantage of being near invulnerable to physical harm - an advantage not shared by his reluctant partner.
Mortis and Bigelo uncover a scheme where the lab tricks dying rich people into signing over half their life savings in return for the promise for eternal life, not telling them that the reanimation is only temporary.
In the end the villians kill and reanimate Bigelo as a mindless zombie to destroy Mortis, but Mortis is able to get through to his partner and together they go after McNab, the head of the reanimation scam. To evade capture McNab kills himself, but Mortis and Bigelow reanimate him just to kill him again and destroy the machine with McNab inside it.
