Devil's Playground

It's interesting how influential Danny Boyle's 28 DAYS LATER was . It wasn't apparent at the time but from that point onwards each and every zombie film must feature zombies , sorry "infected" who can outrun Usain Bolt while having the endurance of a marathon runner . It's also noticeable how many zombie films there are with a massive number of short films and films on The Horror Channel featuring zombie apocalypse . Perhaps most notciable of all is how poor most of them are . and with hindsight Boyle's film was much better than I thought it was on first viewing . This inspiration called DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND is better than most of its peers but that's probably down to a simple reason it's a conscious rip off from Boyle's original

In its favour and considering its cast it'd be a very easy route to take and treat as a Lads Mags horror comedy with lots of nudge nudge wink wink humour testing the patience of its prospective audience . One thing I did like was the dead pan serious tone and while it's hardly big budgeted it does its utmost best to paint a convincing infected outbreak that took place unseen in 28 DAYS LATER . One of the rejected plots for 28 WEEKS LATER was having a SAS platoon rescuing the Prime Minister from the infected outbreak and once you're aware of this rejected screenplay you're able to see how this scenario would have played out on screen . Replace the PM with someone who has a possible immunity to the infection and replace the SAS platoon a more diverse group and you're left thinking that Boyle and Garland got it riht with the version of 28 WEEKS LATER that did make it to the cinemas . Not to be too hard DEBVIL'S PLAYGROUND it's much more enjoyable than I expected it to be and has been one of the better films The Horror Channel has shown recently

Another plague has broken out in London, causing normal humans to become growling, flesh-chompiing zombies with cat-like quickness.

A small band of survivors hole up in a mechanic's garage, until they're forced to make a run for it.

DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND is one of the better "runner" or "infected" zombie films. Those still insisting that all such creatures must shamble slowly while moaning politely will be disappointed once more.

These biters are hopped up on goofballs! They're "free runners" like that maniac at the beginning of CASINO ROYALE!

An exhilarating experience...

I sat through this bum-fluff at the recent GoreZone Festival in London's West End and almost lost the will to live before the opening credits had rolled. The prologue featuring bargain-basement 'action-man' Craig Fairbrass woodenly spouting even more wooden dialogue at the camera as a prep for the sub '28 Days Later' 'Rollercoaster' to come, made my heart sink faster than 'The Detonator' ride at Thorpe Park, and quickly proved its pedigree as a very bad omen for things to come.

Despite the first half hour containing a few nods to the guilty pleasures of Tobe Hooper's 'Lifeforce', there is little to no fun to be derived from this joyless and dispiritingly derivative Brit-Horror that scrapes the bottom of the 'Zombies-what-can-run' barrel into the dirt.

Accomplished camera-work and Sean Pertwee's hilarious cameo stave off some of the boredom, but a hopeless script and Danny Dyer's pathetic attempt at an emphatic hero put debut director Mark McQueen's puny entry into this exhausted genre deservedly into the dustbin of the underachieving undead.

Although I imagine this is a straight to DVD affair, I caught this film on the big screen, followed by a Q&A with the director, and other members of cast and crew, who seemed very proud of their work.

During the showing the film got a few unintentional laughs which led a member of the cast to comment afterwards "I didn't know we had made a comedy zombie film" - No you didn't, you made a film which for the most part was extremely dull, with a wafer thin story and unconvincing characters. The laughter in the audience was due to the poor delivery of meagre lines of script and cliché plot developments.

With so many zombie films out there, you need a new angle to stand out from the crowd, and it was the directors belief that this comes from the fact that the zombies are free runners. To be fair, although free running zombies is only one step forward from the speedy zombies of the Dawn of the Dead remake and 28 Days Later, it's not a bad idea and I was fairly enthused with the idea of seeing this slight new twist. However I was soon to be extremely disappointed that although the film was being sold with this as its unique selling point, this wasn't exploited at all. Yes, the zombies (which mostly just looked like young people in hoodies) ran fast, jumped and vaulted over cars and other obstacles in their way a few times, but I was left thinking is that it, could they not jump and twist off a few buildings or do something well a bit more visually exciting?

The fact that this aspect of the film didn't live up to the hype was only compounded by the complete lack of interesting story. I never bought into any of the characters, especially the lead (played by Craig Fairbrass) who for me has no screen presence whatsoever. Within half an hour I couldn't care less whether any of the characters survived, and the zombies were so uninspiring that I couldn't even root for them.

On the plus side, I thought the film was well shot, with some cool images of London just about stopping me nodding off from boredom a couple of times. Plus there was a genuinely funny cameo from Sean Pertwee (the best part of the film). Shame that his character was never to be seen again, his story might have been more interesting!

Not a fan of Danny Dyer, his attempts at being an 'ard man are cringeworthy, but he is tolerable in this fun virus infected maniacs film. I think they did a great job for the low budget. Some good bloody deaths and some attempts at character development too. Human nature and survival, betrayal. Far worse films out there and for a cheap UK film it's good. Shot in 25 days!! Well done to cast and crew for getting that much done in such a short time and budget.