Rammbock: Berlin Undead

This is one of those flicks I was trying to get in my hands. It is officially out and should be easy to find but when I ordered it it was always delayed but finally I was able to get it from the UK. It's an independent and it shows but not on the effects. It only shows on the amount of actors and on the way the script was written. There are a few CGI shots but it's only the apocalypse of Berlin and it worked out fine. The zombies itself are okay in the way they act and are created. But overall it's more a love story than a real zombie flick. Nevertheless, the zombies do appear at regular base just when you think that it's going to be boring. There is a bit of red stuff and only in the beginning there is a bite in the neck where it's a little bit gory. Further on the gore is left out. Still by clocking in at 61 minutes it's surely on to have in your zombie collection. A really nice effort by the director and his crew.

For a rather short film (just over an hour) with a rather low budget it's not too shabby. The "dead" act like the infected from 28 days later, rather than zombies and are repelled with bright light but do love the taste of flesh! The action takes place in and around an apartment block and a courtyard so don't be mislead by the cover. I liked the film but found the main character to be a complete pain. The guy is a complete plank and its hard to sympathise with him though the other main characters (or should I say, character) were fine. In the middle of the apocalypse, he is completely smitten with his girlfriend and worries about her whereabouts which is plausible but he still comes across as rather stupid and pathetic. However this is a nice change from the hard as nails lead you expect in this type of film. Some people should be warned that the film is in German which posed no problems for me as I don't mind subtitles but folk do seem to moan a lot about having to read subtitles these days...

A man (Michael) goes to Berlin to try and reconcile with his girlfriend (Gabi) under the guise of "returning her keys". When he gets to her house he finds that she's not there and that zombies are ruling the neighborhood. In other words, they're all over the f!!cking place. With the help of a young man (Harper) he is forced to barricade himself in her apartment. In fact everyone in the apartment complex that overlooks a courtyard is trapped; they're only able to communicate with each other by shouting across the courtyard. How the outbreak of zombification started is not known. A special report that conveniently begins as soon as Harper turns on a TV set, highlights terrorism as one of the public and news media speculations (a "German September 11th"). To this, the authorities respond with "ridiculous". So the people in the movie don't really know and neither do we the viewer. But who cares? This is typical of many zombie movies. The important thing is that this is one of the better made ones.

The zombies in this movie are aggressive, ravenous, and know how to hustle for a bite and taste of human flesh. I think it's beginning to dawn on horror movie producers that one could still have some kind of life with the slow zombies since the only way they could catch a healthy man, woman, or child is by surprise. With these new strain of zombies you're pretty much shut down in your house and really horrified. I mean, no work, no school, no social life. Anyway, some of the challenges these trapped people face is to find a way to close the gate to the courtyard below and to navigate the apartment complex to get away from zombies and bring assistance to each other. We all love situations in movies where people are trapped or confined in some place and have to use their courage and ingenuity to survive ---if they're done well. And it's done well here; very entertaining. Don't miss! Love, Boloxxxi.

A German zombie movie, well why not...

A short summary; Michael comes to Berlin to seek his ex-girlfriend Gabi, and comes head to head with an outbreak that turns people into zombies. There, short and to the point, the movie just unfurls after that, just sit back and watch the show...

Actually, the movie "Rammbock", was rather good. Of course, you have to look past it being in German and all. I am saying that because I, personally, don't think German is a nice sounding language. But the language didn't really prove much of a nuisance to the movie.

The story told in "Rammbock" was appealing and good. It was straight forward and moved on at a brisk pace right from the very beginning. And Marvin Kren, the director, actually managed to put together a fairly decent zombie movie here, and proving it can be done with limited funds as well. And the fact that the movie basically just takes place in a small apartment complex, adds some sense of claustrophobia to the movie. And it worked well.

The lead actor, Michael Fuith, playing Michael, actually was quite good in this role. I can't say that I have seen any of his work before, or that I had even heard of him before this movie. Guess it is fairly obvious that German movies is not that I watch the most of.

One thing that I didn't like about the movie, was the agile zombies that were running around. I am more of a Romero-type zombie fan, wanting zombies to be slow moving and rigid in their movements, after all something called Rigor Mortis will set in once you die, so you shouldn't be all flexible and able to run around. But for those who like movies such as "28 Days Later" and "28 Weeks Later", you will definitely like the zombies in this movie. (Both "28 Days" and "28 Weeks" later are awesome movies, by the way.) Also, the ending was a bit too sassy. You saw it coming a mile away and it was quite cheesy. But hey, in overall, the movie was compelling and thrilling. So this ending can be ignored for the greater picture.

For a non-Hollywood movie, "Rammbock" actually is a good notch on the zombie genre. If it definitely worth checking out for zombie fans, regardless of you liking Romero-zombies or the agile zombies. And while you are at it, check out the French zombie movie "The Horde" (La Horde), it is worth the time as well.

I always thought that a low budget zombie movie should be a lot better than the big block busters. Maybe set in my home country of Romania, where guns are rarely allowed and even cops don't carry them much, the story would gain a lot of power and the ingenuity of the people would be brought into view.

Rammbock is exactly the kind of film I was thinking about: set in Berlin, the Eastern side I guess, with extraordinarily ordinary people getting caught by the zombie epidemic in a banal building block. Complex story, a few people, authentic reactions.

I am sure the makers of the movie realized that the true force of the movie is in the obvious of the lowbudgetness, and so they didn't even conform to the length standards of regular movies: it all lasts just an hour, more akin to an episode of something.

Bottom line: it is hard to identify with any of the people in the film, simply because they are so ordinary and like normal persons that we refuse to. I watched the movie with English dubbing, which I hated, but I couldn't find the German version. The zombie story was not developed in any way: we don't know how it happened, why or how to stop it. In the end, the true lead character is the story. I liked the film and I would recommend it to viewers of zombie movies.