If you’re on this website I have no doubt that you’ve heard of Dead End. When I think of classic fan films I think of Hardware Wars, Troops, Dark Redemption and Sandy Collora’s classic Batman/Joker/Predator/Alien mash-up.
Life isn’t fair. The Joker escapes from Arkham Asylum. Bruce Wayne puts on his Batman suit, mask, and cape, and goes in pursuit. He’s soon found the Joker and begins a fight to subdue the red-eyed, sneering villain. Then, suddenly, things take a surprising turn: the Joker becomes the least of Batman’s worries. New enemies appear: it’s as if he’s found himself in another set of comic books. Can he hold his own?
I remember watching this for the first time almost fifteen years ago. The entire film is beautiful eye candy. In my opinion the Batman suit is still one of the best ones ever put into a live action production. It jumps right out of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns deluxe series.
Then you see a perfect Joker portrayed by the late, great Andrew Koenig.
And then Aliens appear!
And then a laser site points at the Alien and blows it away!
And then Predators!
It was just crazy and a particular film experience that can never be repeated. The fan film took all these fantastic franchises I grew up with and put them into one production. Do I dare say it was magical?
There’s a long story on how Dead End was made and the repercussions of the film that was shown at the San Diego Comic Con. You can either listen to the podcast below for the full skinny or check out Sandy’s documentary Behind the Mask: Batman Dead End Story that you can stream for free with Amazon Prime.
Our interview with Sandy on the Fan Film Podcast.
Sandy’s other classic fan film, World’s Finest.
UPDATED JUNE 2017
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THIS fan film was awesome. Batman at his finest. I was impressed with the filming, lighting.
It’s worthy of the big screen,.