Dead Heat (1988 film)

Dead Heat
Directed by	Mark Goldblatt
Produced by	Helpern / Meltzer
Written by	Terry Black
Starring	Treat Williams, Joe Piscopo
Studio	New World Pictures
Distributed by	New World Video
Release date(s)	6 May 1988
Running time	86 min
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$5,000,000 (estimated)
Box office	$3,588,626 (US)

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 villains 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.

Cast

• Treat Williams as Roger Mortis
• Joe Piscopo as Doug Bigelow
• Lindsay Frost as Randi James
• Darren McGavin as Doctor Ernest McNab
• Vincent Price as Arthur P. Loudermilk
• Clare Kirkconnell as Doctor Rebecca Smythers
• Keye Luke as Mr. Thule
• Robert Picardo as Lieutenant Herzog
• Mel Stewart as Captain Mayberry
• Professor Toru Tanaka as Butcher
• Martha Quinn as Newscaster
• Shane Black as Patrolman
• Beth Toussaint as Lab Technician
• Gene LeBell as Guard (uncredited)
• Dick Miller as Cemetery Security Guard (uncredited)
• Linnea Quigley as Zombie Go-Go Girl (uncredited)

See also

• List of zombie films

External links

• Dead Heat at the Internet Movie Database
• Dead Heat review at SF, Horror and Fantasy Film Review