Horror Movie Review: Wizard of Oz: The Dead Walk (2025)

Did you know that L. Frank Baum’s original 1900 book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, is in the public domain? Well, it is, and that means horror filmmakers devoid of creativity have another property to try and make some money off. Written by Tom Jolliffe and directed by Louisa Warren, Wizard of Oz: The Dead Walk (what a dumb name) is not a good film.

Yet, it does have an intriguing plot, one that seems to be more inspired by the Return to Oz film. Which, as everyone who has seen it knows, has horror-like elements anyway.

Alina Desmond stars as Dorothy, who has ended up at a drug rehabilitation farm in the English countryside run by Dr. Mombi (Mary Eva Sharp). She is there to be weaned off her heroin addiction via experimental drugs administered by Dr. Oscar Diggs (Stephen Samson) and has been convinced that her adventures in the land of Oz are delusions caused by her addiction.

She has nightmares though. Nightmares about a witch, a scarecrow, and a tin man. Nightmares about a place she abandoned and people she left behind.

Unfortunately, it’s not the smack, as something bad happened in Oz after she left. Something that is beginning to bleed into the real world. Her friends, the scarecrow and the tin man, have found their way to her, but they’re not the same. Not just the way they look, but the fact that they have murderous intentions and have no problem slaughtering the staff and patients of the facility.

Why? Something about war and power. The wizard came back after Dorothy left as he missed being in charge and ended up battling Glinda for control of Oz. I think one of them might have launched a nuke? It’s as dumb as it sounds and delivered in unconvincing fashion via an exposition dump near the end of the film when true identities are revealed.

Though, if you made it that far, bravo, as this is one hell of a slog to get through.

Let’s talk about what should be the selling point of the film, and that’s the reimagining of Dorothy, the scarecrow and the tin man. I don’t mind Alina Desmond as an actor and she’s doing the best she can with uninspired writing. This isn’t her first rodeo with these types of films, so there is a certain amount of lethargy, but considering the character’s state of mind I think it works. Alas, the same can’t be said for the killers and that’s mainly because of the way they look. Low budget or not, these reimagined versions of the scarecrow and tin man look awful and once you realise the latter is wearing a spray-painted version of the Slipknot guitarist’s mask (Mick), you can’t take it seriously.

If that wasn’t bad enough, their appearances and the rules around them are confusing, and their actual killing ways is very disappointing. In fact, as far as gore and violence goes, the whole film is very disappointing. Yes, low budget, but that’s no excuse for the lack of creativity.

I just think the writing and directing is poor and even though the film is competently put together, enough so that it is watchable, it’s such a boring film, it hardly matters.