Killer Flood: The Day the Dam Broke (2003) Review

A Killer Dam…. In Vermont?

Killer Flood: The Day the Damn Broke (2003): 1 out of 10: Finally a movie whose title is spoiler proof. Even by the low standards of disaster movies, excuse me, allow me to correct myself, even by the low standards of made for TV disaster movies this is awful. Where do I begin? 

The dam modeler may have once seen a photo of a dam, but I doubt it. Most dams, especially large ones that generate electricity, have… oh I don’t know… a power plant nearby, some sluice gates for water to run through, heck, even a high tension electrical wire or two. 

The dam is also somewhat understaffed. Two, count them, two employees staff the entire dam, all three shifts. And the employees were apparently imported from a clichéd ridden World War II film, as they heroically and rather needlessly have long eulogized death scenes complete with photos of grandchildren floating by. One of them even gets shot by the dam itself in a way that defies description. 

The special effects comprise flowing water superimposed on photos of the town in a method that makes a sixties era Godzilla film look like The Matrix. A three-year-old drawing with a blue crayon on the film stock would have yielded better results. Since the disaster money shots are worthless how is the rest of the film? 

Unfortunately, the script and acting follows the special effects lead. This is no diamond in the rough. This is the rough. So is it a guilty pleasure? Killer Flood is awful enough to generate some laughs and the film itself has that earnest incompetence that makes a good cult classic, but terrible disaster films need to age like a fine wine. (Avalanche, The Swarm, Meteor) It is also doubtful that Michelle Green hiding from the flood in a dumpster with a golden retriever will ever match the great Henry Fonda being pelted by raisins in The Swarm. Check back with me in 2024.