Of course I was compelled to sit down and watch the 2018 movie "Dead Squad: Temple of the Undead" because it is a zombie movie. Anything zombiesque, and I am there.

However, I hadn't even heard about this movie prior to finding it, so I didn't really know what to expect. However, the tendency of such unknown zombie movies tend to be bad. But still, I sat down to watch this movie from writers Dominik Hauser and Nancy Thornhill.

Well, turns out that I might as well just have skipped the movie and found something better to watch. While this was a zombie movie, of sorts, then it was hardly an entertaining movie. And it most definitely wasn't a movie that brought anything new to the zombie genre.

The storyline started out fairly okay and had some interesting enough things to present to the audience. But then as the young protagonists came to the old temple in the forest, everything just fell to the ground and the movie slipped so far down a slippery slope that it never had a snowball's chance in Hell of getting back on track.

The acting in the movie was adequate. Well, you must take into consideration the severe limitations imposed on the acting talents by the lack of a proper script and storyline.

The zombie make-up and special effects were adequate. Sure, this wasn't among the top of the line, but there are far worse special effects seen in zombie movies on the market. So that, at least, counted for something. However, it just wasn't enough to make up for all the other shortcomings that the movie had.

I am rating "Dead Squad: Temple of the Undead" a mere three out of ten stars, because the movie failed to entertain or captivate and hold my attention, despite of it being a zombie movie.

Short and sweet. No synopsis or spoilers.

Dead Squad is the epitome, the height, the very definition of zombie b-flick cheese. Super campy with tons of b-flick blood & gore, and a script straight out of the sewer.

There is NOTHING about Dead Squad that makes it worthy of being called a film. A movie? I guess technically, but it's really more of a flick. That doesn't mean it's without its merits or wasn't worthy of watch, 'cause it totally was!

Some quick notes:

• The sets are pretty darn good! Considering this is low budget schmaltz, they're REALLY good. The majority of the movie takes place in these underground bunkers beneath an old temple in the rainforest, and the entire time I was watching I kept telling myself that it is remeniscent of the old TV show 'Land Of the Lost' - not the show, but the Sleestack lair. You know...those killer reptile humanoids that walked around hissing? Yep...that's what the bunker beneath the temple reminds me of, and it looks really cool.
• The direction and writing was actually quite solid. Any zombie movie that invokes empathy toward a zombie is clever. Crazy & kookie, but clever. The acting was EXACTLY what you would expect from a cheesy b-flick zombie movie with lots of over-the-top, wooden dialog, although the lead (her name escapes me, but she is a young black girl who happens to be some kind of martial arts guru) did a pretty convincing job. Everything else was exactly what you wokld expect from a cheesy zombie flick.

• PROFANITY: Yeh, there's some, but not a ton. Just a few places here and there.
• INTENSE/SCARY SCENES: Come on...it's a cheesy zombie b-flick.
• NUDITY/SEXUAL SITUATIONS: Now we're getting somewhere. While it's not loaded with hardcore nudity, there are the token b-flick "boob shots" several times, along with some scantily clad women (and zombies) and a few scenes of a sexual nature. Beyond the token few, however, it's not sex overload, or rampant through the film.

Every now and then, I like to watch a randomly selected horror movie knowing absolutely nothing about it; most of the time, these 'blind watches' turn out to be junk, but occasionally I find a hidden gem, or at least a film that is dumb fun. Dead Squad is one such film: it's not a great film per se, but it is highly entertaining--a deliberately cheesy piece of schlock that delivers those staples of the genre, excessive gore and gratuitous nudity.

The directorial debut of movie musician Dominik Hauser, Dead Squad: Temple of the Dead (to give it it's full title) follows a group of backpackers who stray off the beaten path and discover an ancient temple where they decide to seek shelter for the night, unaware that the ruins are home to mutated flesh-eating zombie monsters, created by a Nazi scientist working for the C.I.A.

Hauser lays on the cheeze and the splatter from the word go, with a prologue set in 1958 that sees a man having his face pulled off. The action then moves to present day, but the craziness continues throughout, the bloody mayhem including an exploding stomach, mutant/zombie impalement, a jawbone ripped off, gut-munching, decapitation, and the hilarious sight of one of the backpackers having his skull pulled out of his abdomen! Busty Bianca Zouppas as sexy sightseer Tiffany provides most of the nudity, although a couple of female zombies also get flash their boobs. There's also a zombie-on-zombie blow-job and a dwarf zombie with his head buried in a female zombie's crotch!

The plot is formulaic, the acting is fairly diabolical, and the film has some of the worst scene transitions imaginable, but the plentiful blood and guts, the nekkidness, and some surprisingly effective set design all go to make Dead Squad an enjoyable time-waster--one of those rare times when taking pot luck actually payed off.

6.5/10 for the gore, rounded up to 7 for the flesh-eating dwarf (I'm a sucker for a horror film with a dwarf, even more-so if the little fellow is a zombie).