Generation Z

There's a throwaway comment on the movie industry; they sometimes call extras 'moving scenery'. Here, they're the scenery that gets chewed by many of the cast.

This is such a hodge podge. Occasional scenes are ghoulishly funny, riffing on the cliches about 'older people' and the younger crowd; and, of course, the many tropes abounding after 60+ years of mainstream zombie films.

The third agers- Anita Dobson, Sue Johnston leading - have the, erm, 'meatiest' roles here; plenty to get their teeth into! Others, including Robert Lindsay and Michael Smiley, are good but initially peripheral.

There are many scenes that some might prefer to 'unsee'; there is a taste (!) of the 1960s Hammer horror classics that goes way beyond what was possible then.

Where it falls apart is the multiplicity of characters, generations and their stories. It needs three generations; school age, pensioners and that 'squeezed middle'. There ends up being such a muddle of characters, quite diverse, so that by the time you've worked out who is related to whom, they're toast; with lots of extra strawberry jam.

One final problem for the school agers; some decent acting here, but a couple are still in sixth form aged 28 and 26, and there's no acting around that fact.

Channel 4 clearly will just do anything for a Ben Wheatley commission. Not only that, but what a cast he's managed to assemble.

Don't be fooled by the Big name writer/director or the assembled usually pretty great cast, this site is absolute tripe.

It looks cheap. It feels cheaper. There isn't a single character that you could give a toss about. The script chops and changes so frequently and incorrectly as to give whiplash, and each time it does so you get an accompanying 'place name, X no miles away from the chemical spillage' typewriter effect on the screen. This happens at least 10 times in the first five minutes. It's very very annoying.

The cast have nothing to do. There's no fun in it (admittedly I only watched the first episode, I couldn't bare to watch another second) which is the really shocking thing.

It's not fun. It's not scary. It didn't have anything new to say. It's just absolutely terrible.

When first saw add for this thought was going to be really good and fun and so close to Halloween thought hell yeah.

So can imagine my dissapointment (maybe) when saw this, comedy horror.? Nope not at all was no larfs in this horror was OK but the writing the poor poor writing was just that poor and extremely predictable and the DEI in this made me groan and roll eye's thinking yeah of course it is. But on bright side if can call it that the acting is ok and special effects decant but honestly and sadly that's about it.

This could of been great and so good but nope it wasn't what a waist 'sigh' may of been over generous with rating at best was ok.

P.s. Reaching this word count is a pain and 600 odd words dame.

An army truck crashes with a tank of zombie juice crashes - seen that before, ticket updates, seen that before,, boring- seen that before, Just because you put Z or Zombie in the title does not make it interesting of good. That died with Romero and Shaun of the dead! We do not need 6 episodes of this tat. Such a waste of everyone's time to even give this rubbish a bit of time.

Go and watch Danny Boyles 28 Days films if you want a zombie film rather than this loaded full of adverts piece of junk. ITV at its worst, no original ideas and just stealing from the pioneers of the genre who should be ashamed.

A truck carrying a chemical load in the village of Dambury spills its load, an accident that transforms the residents of a nursing home into flesh eating zombies.

It just doesn't work overall, there are some really nice, original ideas at play, the trouble is that it's just not very good.

It's not gory enough to be a horror, not funny enough to be a comedy, it tries to make several points about present day politics, but it just ends up being irritating.

On the plus side, I love the ideas of zombies that can reason, flesh eating monsters with a conscience, and I liked the idea of a hierarchy and a power struggle.

Sadly the woes outweigh the positives, sometimes it feels like scooby doo, it's almost adolescent. The special effects could have come from 1997, the editing is horrific, and you're asked to believe that adults are school children. It does also get preachy at times.

It features an awesome cast, one that really appealed to me, Sue Johnston, Robert Lindsay, Anita Dobson and more, all you can say is that a good job was done pitching the idea of this to them.

Channel 4 I have to ask, what on Earth is going on with your drama content, what has gone so badly wrong?

Highly unlikely that series two will follow.

4/10.