Dead Again

I don't know how to describe this movie. It's a new take on zombies. I fell asleep watching it.

In a quiet rural English community, a zombie apocalypse is unleashed and the various locals are forced to deal with it.

It's an English zombie comedy. So my initial thought is Shaun of the Dead and this is nothing like that. It's nowhere near that level. The comedy is rather flat. If it's anything, it's more like the Night of the Living Dead but still not as good. It's really an uninspired indie made by a run-of-the-mill film group. It's a good step above student films but it lacks any aspect which could make this good.

Ok, so lets get things right: when judging a movie, especially an underground one, please take the budget in consideration. Clearly this one had perhaps a few thousands ready to spend, but I doubt there was any more.

Thus the final product is weird and divided: a first half consisting in nothing more but dialogue with some humor every now and then, and a second one that transformed into a shooter for some reason. Sure zombie movies are cheap and easy to do, they also threw the abandoned building in the mix, so that saved a lot for location, some cheap blood special effects and that was about all.

Anyway, hard to watch, impossible to recommend, it is a movie that tried to take itself serious and perhaps that was its biggest flaw. It just didn't work out, sorry.

Cheers!

Few guys got together and one of them said "Hey I've got an idea. Let's butcher Sean Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz and World's End all in one go".

This atrocity is the result.

Right, well I might as well just be honest and say that this movie, given it's very "Shaun of the Dead" look-alike movie cover and the fact that it is a zombie movie made me sit down to watch the 2021 movie "Dead Again".

And the title actually gives away how you would feel once you watch this movie. Yeah, this movie was a massive swing and a miss.

First of all, the storyline was just not overly well-written. Sure, it was watchable, but it didn't really feel like much effort was put into the writing of the script and storyline. So it felt very much like some kind of home video project.

And then there were the zombies. No. Just no. That didn't work out one bit. Zombies that were sort of half-lurching, half-running? No, it didn't work in favor of the movie. Nor did the fact that there was literally no proper zombie special effects or gory make-up. So the zombies in the movie felt like little more than just extras milling about with some theater paint brushed on their faces.

The characters in the movie definitely had potential. But given the inadequate script and the whole down-the-drain atmosphere permeating from the movie, then it was just near impossible to actually take much of a liking to the characters. I wanted to, sure, but I just couldn't find the angle.

Sure there were some nice enough references to other movies throughout the course of "Dead Again", but given the acting performances and the interaction between the characters, it felt like these attempts were tossed up in the air only to be left falling flat on to the ground. The dialogue in the movie was not something that will leave you wanting for more.

"Dead Again" from writer and director Steven M. Smith was a swing and a miss. I watch a lot of zombie movies, and "Dead Again" was by no means remarkable or noteworthy. It came without as much as making any noise, and it will fade into oblivion just as quietly. This is not a good zombie movie.

My rating of "Dead Again" lands on a generous two out of ten stars, mostly based on the effort the people working on this project had put into it.