One thing you’ll notice early and often in the locally produced independent feature Dead West is that it looks much better than a million-dollar movie probably should. Polished production values are hard to find in do-it-yourself jobs, but the sound, most of the makeup, the special effects and especially the cinematography in Dead West are well-done. This hybrid Western/zombie picture tips its 10-gallon hat to Old Tucson studios in a fresh way, but it needs to move a little quicker once the situation becomes obvious. Little tricks like shorter scenes, a less-crowded third act and fewer characters could go a long way, but on the whole, writer-director Douglas Myers gets a pretty big bang for his buck.