Rob Zombie is known for making horror movies and industrial-flavored heavy metal music, but he isn’t the only member of his family to delve into such passions. His brother, Michael David Cummings (more famously known as Powerman 5000 frontman Spider One), also knows how to start a mosh pit and send shivers down the spines of movie fans. As of this writing, Cummings has helmed three horror flicks (“Allegoria,” “Bury the Bride,” and “Little Bites”), but they weren’t his only forays into spooky on-screen entertainment.
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Before he started directing horror movies, Cummings — along with “Scrubs” writer Eric Weinberg and Adult Swim alum Curtis Gwinn — created MTV’s short-lived “Death Valley,” a mockumentary series about cops and monsters. The story centers around the officers of the Undead Task Force (UTF) and their camera crew as they deal with werewolves, vampires, and zombies in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley. Think “Reno 911” meets “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” with a little bit of “What We Do in the Shadows” thrown in for good measure.
Despite its similarities to some beloved comedy series, “Death Valley” will go down in history as one of the better shows to be canceled after one season. A shame, really, as MTV’s forgotten mockumentary procedural has a great premise that deserved to be milked for more than 12 episodes.
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Death Valley gave its monsters criminal motivations
“Death Valley” is quite grounded for a comedy-horror series about monsters. Instead of employing a standard monster-of-the-week battle set-up, it explores a world where humans are learning to adapt with the monsters who suddenly appeared one year earlier. The Undead Task Force’s cops are down-to-earth and their supernatural cases are portrayed as being as routine as a regular officer taking down a robber, but they still find themselves in some perilous situations.
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The monsters aren’t your standard “Argh! We eat humans” menaces, either. In this universe, vampires can also be pimps, werewolves star in adult films, and bloodsuckers roll around in biker gangs. Some episodes are also tributes to classic movies, most notably “Assault on Precinct UTF,” which centers around vampires trying to break one of their own out of jail. It’s a clear homage to the all-time great siege in John Carpenter’s “Assault on Precinct 13,” and it is a lot of fun. The show expertly combines police procedural tropes with horror comedy, finding much of its humor in the mundane.
“Death Valley” is also notable for tapping Jordan Vogt-Roberts to helm some episodes, paving the way for him to go on to find success with “The Kings of Summer” and “Kong: Skull Island” years later. All of the ingredients were in place for this show to become a hit, but, alas, it just wasn’t meant to be.
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