"Dead Above Ground" qualifies as a mediocre murder-mystery that wouldn't scare a fly. The most disappointing thing about this lukewarm slasher saga is the gifted Stephen J. Cannell penned and produced it. Remember "The A-Team," "Hunter," "The Rockford Files," and "The Black Sheep Squadron?" Cannell penned and produced all those seminal series. This whodunit masquerading as a horror movie is more of a police procedural. "Swamp Thing" television director Chuck Bowman doesn't generate much in the way of atmosphere for this aura-starved epic. Sometimes, we are treated to some grisly sights of axes buried in bodies. Corbin Bernsen shows up briefly in an early scene and about an hour elapses before Robert Conrad puts in a special guest appearance. The characters are bland, one-dimensional, ciphers with nothing eccentric about them. Nothing about Cannell's dialogue is memorable. Strong production values make this forgettable yarn look better than it should, and Georg Fick's cinematography ranks as above-average. The ending imitates "Halloween" with the villain impaling himself on metal stakes on a beach. Predictably, like all slasher villains, he turns out to be invincible. People who prefer slashers will feel slighted by the extreme shortage of blood, gore, and nudity.
"Dead Above Ground" opens after the All-America Film Awards Ceremony where cowboy movie director Mark Mallory (Corbin Bernsen of "Major League") has won a statuette. His lady friend and he wheel into the drive-way of his house in an exotic sports car. Mallory senses something is amiss when he spots red paint splattered like blood on his front door. At the bottom of the door, three words have been spelled out in red: dead above ground. Angry at this vandalism, Mark slips his samurai saber out of its sheathe and stalks a man in a black cloak. Initially, Mallory thinks that he has killed the intruder after the fiend chopped through his front door with an ax. Sagaciously, Mallory jabs his samurai saber through the door. When he opens the door, he cringes in horror at the sight of his girlfriend tied to the door and bleeding to death. The intruder in the black cloak takes a bear trap and sets it to catch Mallory in his own house. Not surprisingly, the frightened movie director steps into the bear trap. The hooded anonymous figure of the intruder appears and decapitates Mallory with a large, medieval looking ax.
After this promising but lurid opening, "Dead Above Ground" takes us to Bay City High School. We meet the jocks and their cheerleader girlfriends as well as the two Goths in this scene. Jeffrey 'Jeff' Lucas (Josh Hammond of "Jeepers Creepers 2") looks pretty maniacal with his corn-row hair style, eye liner, painted nails, and black outfit. He cuts a flamboyant character. Later, in the classroom, Bay City High School Principal Carl Hadden (Stephen J. Cannell) screens Jeffrey's videotape as the first of many that were assigned as a class project. Hadden doesn't like what he watches. Jeffrey ignored Hadden's dictum to make a documentary. Instead, he helmed made a five-minute slasher movie. Everybody in class laughs at Jeffrey. "Can't you see the evil in me," Jeffrey cries. He tells his classmates they are dead above ground. Dr. Brenda Boone talks to Jeff, and she tells Hadden at his pool party he believes Jeff is insane. Jeff rams Dillon Johnson's Firebird and Dillon pursues him. Swerving along a mountainside highway, Jeff misjudges matters and plunges his car over the side. The explosive stunt with Jeff's car transforming into a fireball is cool.
Later, during the fall semester, Hadden reprimands his former football coach, Tom Donaldson (Don Michael Paul of "Heart of Dixie"), for parking on school premises. Hadden fired Donaldson because the coach lost more games than he won. A new student, Chip Palmer (Adam Frost) arrives at Bay City. We're told through too much exposition that he has moved into the house where Jeff lensed his horror movie. Palmer approaches Dillon and warns him, "Bad things are about to happen." Somebody bangs on Donaldson's van. When he opens the door, a raven attacks him. Moments afterward, a hooded figure sinks an ax in Donaldson's heart. Thirty-six minutes into the action, Sgt. Dan DeSousa (Antonio Sabata, Jr. of "High Voltage") interviews Dr. Boone about Donaldson. Not long afterward, Jeff's friend Zara Light (Adria Dawn) tries to summon Jeffry's spirit at a séance. After the séance, the students discover Hadden dead in his residence. The sergeant interrogates Dillon. He considers him a prime suspect in the murders of Donaldson and Hadden. Dillon tells his friends that the police think that whoever is killing people is using Jeff's horror movie as a blue-print for homicide. Sergeant DeSousa goes to Darcy's parents and tells them that her photo was found in Kelly's stomach. The father, Reed Wilson (Robert Conrad), decides to take his own precautions. He vows to not let Darcy out of his sight. Darcy doesn't believe that Dillon is the murderer. Of course, she is right.
You'll have to suffer through this 90 minute monstrosity to see who the murderer is.
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