What if you discovered you were capable of astral projection, and what if this ability could be used to bring someone back from their untimely death? Now, what if you add time-travel, a faux-vampire ex-girlfriend, and a 33-year-old nephew side-kick with the maturity of a 12-year-old? The resulting concoction would be Mandao of the Dead.

Written, directed by, and starring Scott Dunn, Mandao of the Dead is a microbudget indie horror-comedy that follows Jay Mandao and his adult nephew-in-law Jackson, who use Jay’s newfound ability to astral project in order to travel back in time and reverse the death of a man who was killed on Halloween. What results is a film that’s somehow charming and endearing, but not enough so to make up for its slapdash and convoluted screenplay and overly slow pace.

From the very first frame, it is clear that this film was made on an incredibly low budget. This is par for the course when talking about a film that was shot for a mere $13,000. It feels cheap because it is cheap, and to criticize it for having fewer resources isn’t fair to the people who made it. Dunn and his crew clearly put effort into this project, and they are able to pull off on such a modest budget is endearingly kitschy and admirably charming.

It also helps that everyone involved in the project seems to understand how wacky the material is. Everyone in the cast seems to be having fun with their roles while mostly avoiding the temptation to cross over into hammy, over-the-top territories. Particular praise should be given to actress Marisa Hood in the role of the film’s villain, whose understated performance imbues her character with layers of sad ambivalence and mystery. While all of the cast is clearly having fun and giving it their best, she is certainly the standout and gives her character the most dimension.

Where the film falters is in the script department. Simple, economic storytelling can be a powerful tool, but Mandao of the Dead, unfortunately, doesn’t seem to understand this. The film deals with the topics of time travel, astral projection, reversing death, and faux-vampirism, all of which could make for wonderful films on their own. But rather than allowing for simplicity, the film chooses to mash these topics together haphazardly, causing all of them to feel undercooked. It doesn’t help matters that they are all introduced in such ham-fisted, inorganic fashions. Things just seem to happen in this script. Characters lack coherent or organic motivations for their actions. Things happen because the screenwriter wanted them to, and the consequence for that is a film that feels messy, unwieldy, and illogical.

The script’s issues become even more glaring because of the film’s extremely plodding pace. While slow burns can work wonders in horror, this film isn’t a slow burn so much as it’s just badly paced. There is not even hint of a plot developing within the first act of the film. Instead, we’re treated to a collection of unnecessary sequences that stretch what should have been two or three minor scenes worth of character development into approximately 20 minutes before the film decides it should introduce its story. It feels self-indulgent at times, caring more about what hackneyed gags it can throw at the audience instead of developing a coherent, satisfying story. The film is under an hour and 15 minutes long, but there is so much runtime padding that it feels like eons have passed before we reach the credits.

In the end, the audience is left with what could have been a really charming, wacky, and fun short film. The filmmaker’s passion for the project is earnest and palpable, and if more economic storytelling had been employed, this film could have worked. But the film isn’t a Short. It’s a feature and one that overstays its welcome before the main conflict is even introduced.

Scott Dunn’s Mandao of the Dead, is now available to stream on Amazon Prime.
The Sci-fi Horror Comedy will release on iTunes February 8, 2019.