Death feeding on life becoming death feeding on life ...

DEADSCAPES II is the second installment in the short film series by Kristofer Velasquez set in a world where the dead walk.

In this episode, a killer walks the streets of a suburban neighborhood randomly choosing his next victims. Tonight, things take a strange turn for the worse. The recently dead have been returning to life and attacking the living. As civil unrest peaks, it's business as usual for Carl, the murderous stranger who makes house calls.

Meanwhile, Lisa leaves work for home as chaos is unfolding everywhere. She encounters Carl and the grizzly scene at her home. Both have had a brush with death that defies logic and reason. The line between victim and killer is blurred as the tale escalates and the shocking conclusion unfolds.

Deadscapes II attempts to continue the series in a genre often full of repetition and stagnancy. In an era of remakes and imitations of such, reinvention particularly the zombie genre) has become a pool of seemingly used-up ideas and concepts. George Romero's world of chaos and apocalypse has been done to death, so to speak. But the scariest part is that the themes already touched on in his films become the basis for capitalization on the new resurgence in popularity for zombie films. The result? An outpouring of products that not only rehash old ideas, but in turn imitate each other in what amounts ultimately to eye candy; a whole lot of blood and not a lot of story. A whole lot of zombies and but not an ounce of heart (besides those being eaten, of course).

Deadscapes II's filmic eye telescopes in on a grizzly scene that could happen anytime and anywhere, without zombies present to be horrific. The gruesome irony is that this situation (a serial killing) happens on a night when the dead begin to walk. The interception of these hideous plot colors makes for an interesting dynamic often missing from a zombie film. When you look at a landscape, your eyes can pan around to see the lay of the land; where it can take you. When you look at a deadscape; all your paths lead to darkness. This broader vision of horror is what Deadscapes intends to maintain amidst the narrower of some if its peers. Deadscapes II is a step further down this path - along a river of blood, no less.