David Blyth was clearly inspired by the cult success of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1979). There were an enormous number of copies of Dawn of the Dead made in Italy around this time. And when you come down to it, Death Warmed Up is an Italian horror film in tone – the garish lighting effects and experimental camerawork recall Mario Bava and the level of full-guts-ahead energy recalls Lucio Fulci and the numerous Italian Dawn of the Dead copies. The film is highly inventive in its enterprising low-budget and looks and moves far more slickly than many American counterparts on similar budgets. There are some inventively el cheapo costumes and corrugated tin sheet hospital sets that amusingly suggest a New Wave version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975).

But Death Warmed Up is also a deeply problem ridden film. Particularly noticeable is the absence of anything remotely resembling a plot or rational imposition of narrative. There is no explanation of what Howell is doing or why. The film’s level of energy carries it for two-thirds of the running time before it becomes more and more noticeable at about the point the action arrives at the hospital that nothing is holding it together. Particularly annoying is the ending that promises a big showdown between hero Michael Hurst and villainous David Letch, which fades out before anything happens and Blyth cuts away to a meaningless epilogue. Blyth sometimes also does not know when to call it a day. The film’s most nauseating and funny scene – a brain operation wherein the medical personnel are splattered – gets a laugh so he repeats it all over a second time. Worst moment is a appalling cameo from Jonathan Hardy as an Indian grocer.

Death Warmed Up served to announce David Blyth’s presence to the world and was well received at various horror festivals, although Blyth has failed to do much since. He went onto direct The Horror Show (1989) for Sean S. Cunningham but quit a few days in. He next made the interesting medical vampire film Red Blooded American Girl (1990), returned to New Zealand to make the children’s vampire film Grampire/My Grandfather is a Vampire (1992) and then the cable thrillers Red Blooded (1996), unrelated to Red Blooded American Girl, and Exposure (2000). Blyth’s only other work since has been directing episodes of tv series such as Eerie, Indiana (1991-2) and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1993-6), as well as Bound for Pleasure (2002), an interesting documentary about BDSM for New Zealand tv. Among the cast, Norelle Scott has gone onto become an acclaimed playwright and New Zealand tv writer, while Michael Hurst of course became the sidekick Iolaus on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1994-9).