Michael Ledo During the zombie apocalypse, Charlie (Joe Belknap) in Toledo, tries to meet up with his girlfriend (Mary Lindberg) in Wausau, Wisconsin. He travels with some folks, they meet some people along the way. Charlie isn't wrapped tight. The film was too low budget for us to see any infected people outside of their pants leg.The film was boring. The most exciting part was the September calendar with 31 days on it. I thought the film was going to go somewhere other than straight down the tubes. While traveling, Charlie has a bunch of boring meaningless flashbacks, to make us wonder why we are still watching this.Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity. Realistic couple from the UP. They were boring too.

andismyth Watched this last night and what a pleasant surprise it was. Yeah the budget is low, but in a nod to the walking dead the filmmaker has chosen to focus on what the effects of living in the outbreak do to a person.Instead of spending money of loads of crap make up effect(like the 6th extinction) they have concentrated on the characters and a better story than some other films in the genre.Like the main character who is a meek and mild slacker who then goes on a downward spiral. And it's not just the zombies that get the brunt of his change in personality.Well worth a watch

Scott LeBrun This is fairly effective raw and stripped-down genre filmmaking. The people behind "Dead Weight" decide to focus on the human element, presumably not having the wherewithal to stage elaborate set pieces, or construct lots of makeup effects. It's likely not going to appeal to the majority of horror fans, due to this de-emphasis on action and gore. But the writers / directors, Adam Bartlett and John Pata, get excellent use out of some great rural Wisconsin locations, and the acting, while expectedly not that polished, is reasonably convincing.The script moves between different points in time, often flashing back to happier moments from our two main characters' lives. Charlie Russell (Joe Belknap) is a young man who receives word from ex-girlfriend Samantha MacReady (Mary Lindberg) that all of a sudden an apocalyptic viral outbreak is under way. Charlie hooks up with a select few survivors, including Meredith (Michelle Courvais) and Thomas (Aaron Christensen), to make a trek through the Wisconsin woods to rendezvous with Samantha. (Supposedly, the woods are safer than the cities)."Dead Weight" is a quiet film, no doubt about that, that may admittedly test the patience of viewers conditioned to quicker pacing, louder volume, and more action. But at its core it's an effective little mood piece with some impressive atmosphere and a resonant main theme of trust issues in times of crisis.Belknap and Lindberg are likable in the lead roles, receiving fine support from their supporting players Christensen, Courvais, Sam Lenz (as Dustin), and Jess Ader (as Drew). Steve Herson as Harrison does a pretty engaging job of getting out what little exposition there is.Travis Auclair handles the lighting duties and does a good job; Nicholas Elert similarly delivers the goods with his music score.All in all, this is pretty good modern indie horror.Seven out of 10.

lansingjim I watched this with a little hesitation, because low budget indie movies can suck to the point of being painful. You don't need multimillion dollar budgets to make a good movie, but often a little money can make the difference between lame and pretty good. Luckily in this case it all comes together rather well. There's a few instances of wooden acting and the typical plot glitches, but overall the folks behind this movie did a wonderful job with what they had. While everyone did a pretty good job, the two female leads were superb. I hope to see them again, because they had the perfect "girl next door" looks and managed to come off so real that it made me feel like I knew them. Well done and I hope these guys get another chance to make a movie. Nice pacing, great scenery and an involving storyline made this worth a watch.