As straight-to-video zombie films go, Death Valley is one of them. But more than that, it stands out for having two major black characters and an interesting racial subplot involving zombie cowboy Bloody Bill: “The only thing he hated more than Yankees,” explains one of the teenaged fodder, “was black people.” Unfortunately for the group of kids who stumble upon the ghost town of Sunset Valley, they all fall into one of those two categories.
The racist zombie angle isn’t played up as much as it could be (I smell sequel!), but black characters Mandy (Denise Boutte) — the priss — and Earl (Gregory Bastien) — the drug-dealing thug — still play important roles and almost don’t die! Earl makes up for his thuggish ways by dying a heroic death with the requisite parting words, “Get the hell outta here, and don’t look back!” (They don’t.) Nevertheless, Death Valley is solidly entertaining for a direct-to-video cowboy zombie flick with an overly long title in which all the black people get eaten.
