As I discussed in my Urban Fears review, there is sub-genre devoted to so bad that they are good movies. With that film, I complained that for all the sightly amusing moments the film seemed cheap and had too many slow moments. So one could make an argument that with a larger budget that film might not have fallen into the so bad its good category and might have risen above it. Well, Art of the Dead throws that argument completely out the window with a clearly sizeable budget that does nothing to save the movie from being a boring generic mess.

After an art collector in an insane rage murders his family and himself his rare art series by a long-forgotten artist heads to auction. The Sinsations Collection are bought by the eco-positive architect Dylan Wilson and his wife Gina to the dismay of the grim-looking Father Mendale. He tries to warn them of the evil powers that lurk in the paintings, each one possessing a trait of the seven deadly sins, before being thrown out of the art gallery. Not heeding the warning, the Wilsons takes the paintings to their luxurious mansion and hang each painting in a different room of the house. With each family member being exposed to a different painting what will the results be, and can they survive becoming the sin that hides deep in their psyches?

Watching this film the first thing that struck me was the misuse of the budget on needless named actors and an unnecessary popular song. Richard Grieco does a great performance as the doomed previous owner of the cursed paintings in the intro but considering he is only in the first 5 minutes it doesn’t seem worth the money to hire him for such a small scene. Considering Tara Reid is a minimum of $15,000 to make an appearance according to her talent agency, she is nothing by an expensive detriment to this film. Not only is she giving a second rate performance but I can’t for a second believe her performance as a professional art gallery auctioneer. Combine these expenditures with a misused Black Keys song and you just have a lot of squandered money that could have been used elsewhere in the production.

If you have ever seen Oculus one of the strongest features of the film is the slow build of the mirror’s powers of the household and the people within it. In Art of the Dead the paintings have a hold on someone as soon as they look at them, eliminating all the tension. Whether it is Gina looking at the lust painting and instantly becoming horny or Dylan becoming insane with greed with his painting it just comes off as pointless if they’re seduced so quick. Meanwhile, the film culminates in the family being absorbed into the painting and a character having to go into the painting world to save them. This segment is by far the most interesting part and is only used in the last 7 minutes, making it feel like an afterthought. If the film had centered around the spirits inhabiting the painting replacing the family and the journey into the paintings to save them, we would have a film far more unique and engaging than what we received.

In the end, I would like to say that Art of the Dead is just a bland and forgettable experience but the film begins to grate with the decisions it makes to the point of irritation. With some careful escalation with the paintings and less time spent on the family becoming a sin cliches, this film could have been a good experience. By far the most interesting thing about the film is the 5-minute intro with Richard Grieco, which would have a great short film, as opposed to the 90-minute slog we were left with.