Gangs of the Dead

Gangs of the Dead, also known as Last Rites, is a zombie survival film first revealed June 30th, 2006 at a Los Angeles Film Festival. The movie was then released to the public on May 1st, 2007. Filming took place in Los Angeles, California, USA, starring Enrique Almeida and Reggie Bannister.

ALSO KNOWN AS 48 WEEKS LATER

Plot Synopsis

The movie begins when a meteor containing spores that reanimate the dead crashes into Los Angeles, killing a bunch of homeless people who are later transformed into flesh-eating zombies. The film moves on to 'The Lords of Crenshaw" gang. The members of this gang include Snakedog, Mac T, Jerome and Latasha. Latasha is Jerome's sister and provides a love interest for Snakedog. The Lords of Crenshaw make their way to an abandoned warehouse to meet with Mitch (Reggie Bannister), an arms dealer hiding on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Coincidentally a rival gang, "El Diablo Muerto," from the barrios of East Los Angeles also have an appointment with Mitch. The El Diablo are made up of Caesar, Santos, Spider and Caesar's girlfriend, Cassie. There is plenty of tension between the two gangs, obviously, and there are cops staked out on patrol outside the warehouse.

The zombies reanimate, killing a number of the cops and the local television weatherman's wife. Shortly after hearing the sound of a car continuously beeping, the Lords of Crenshaw, 'safe' inside the warehouse, suddenly remember that they'd left Latasha in the car and realize that she is now alone, outside, with zombies surrounding her. Snakedog grabs a random piece of lumber and rushes outside to save his crush from the blood-thirsty creatures.

Mitch decides to kill the zombies and opens the warehouse garage door, at which point the two surviving cops (Dan Campbell and Bruce O'Bannon) drive straight for the warehouse, running over Mitch and killing him. The cops then confront the two gangs. Another group of zombies appear, some jumping out of the back of the police van, and the fight goes on. The garage doors are, eventually, closed just as the zombies swarm the warehouse.

Campbell decides that if they could all work together, they could keep the warehouse secure until backup arrives, but Caesar disagrees, overpowering Campbell, and decides he'll leave. Campbell soon finds that they aren't able to radio for help. While the Lords head into the warehouse office and find a radio and try to find some news about the zombies in the town, the El Diablos are making their way around the place with Caesar.

As they wander the warehouse, they hear noise outside a barricaded door. Fearing it might be that the blood-eating creatures have entered the building, they cautiously open the door and find local television weatherman, Dick Weatherman. They force him outside, unprotected, with the zombies, using him as a distraction so that Caesar and Spider can go out, attack the zombies, and attempt to get their car. They can, then, pick up Santos and Cassie and escape to safety.

Their plan fails when they manage to accidentally shoot the car's gas tank, causing a leak, which eventually leads to a fire and the car's explosion. They get into a garbage bin where they find Dick hiding, but Spider gets his arm bitten by a zombie. Campbell, Bruce, and Cassie save them and help them get back into the warehouse, but Caesar leaves Campbell to get killed by the zombies.

Afterward they realize Spiders been bitten and they tie him up, but with some disagreement from Mac T. Caesar kills Mac T and, after Spider is tied down, locks Bruce in a cell handcuffs Snakedog and Jerome together. Dick decides to have a drink in the kitchen area of the warehouse and spots a crate of hand grenades. Later, with Caesar confronting him and zombies entering the building, Dick decides to set off a bomb to kill the zombies. But, of course, since they're zombies, they don't die but are now trapped in the kitchen. Dick heads off to see Spider, has a talk and decides he should die like a man. He releases infected Spider from his chair and gets bitten while the rest are working to build something to get out of the warehouse. Santos goes to find out where Dick is, but he gets bitten by Dick.

Caesar, apparently more concerned with money than the fact that there are zombies outside (and inside) the building, goes into the police van and listens to the surveillance recording of Mitch telling them about the money order. Then he goes to question Bruce. Cassie confronts Caesar, begging him not to shoot Bruce. Caesar threatens Cassie, pointing the gun at her, which allows Bruce an opening to attack Caesar and try to grab his gun. Bruce fails, and gets shot. Snakedog and Jerome manage to surprise Caesar, and manage to disarm him. Caesar pushes Snakedog into an electric chair which kills him. Cassie grabs the gun and shoots Caesar but fails to kill him, and then finds Bruce dying.

Jerome, Cassie, and Latasha decide to create a distraction to get all the zombies inside the room. Soon whilst they're getting to business Caesar walks slowly recovering his injury attempting to get help from Spider but whos infected attacks Caesar who runs through another barricaded door only to get a swarm of zombies that kill him by ripping his mouth open

Cassie grabs the crate of grenades whilst Jerome is distracting the zombies, and they search the place for any useful tools, but the zombies manage to get in before they're ready, trapping Cassie and Latasha in the warehouse office and Jerome on top of the police van that they were planning to escape in.

With the zombies surrounding him, Jerome decides to set off the grenade, killing himself and all the remaining zombies in the building. Cassie and Latasha are the sole survivors, escaping the carnage only to notice more meteors hitting other parts of the city ...

Trivia

* The film was originally named "Last Rites".
* Title was changed for the DVD release.
* For UK release the title was changed to "48 Weeks Later"

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