Rammbock

RAMMBOCK is a brilliant little "infected zombie" movie from Germany. At a mere 1 hour in length, it gets right into the action with a small group of survivors trapped in an apartment complex.

A mysterious infection is turning anyone bitten into mindless, orally-foaming, killing machines.

This movie has two major strengths: #1- The characters, though in a panic, are not stupid. They come up with some innovative ideas for their escape and / or survival. #2- There's a central theme of humanity within the carnage and chaos. This makes it more realistic, even heartbreaking when tragic losses occur.

Don't worry though, there are plenty of shocks to be had!

One of the best, most original modern zombie films to emerge...

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.

Rammbock otherwise known as Berlin Dead and Siege Of The Dead is a German zombie movie which tells the very generic story of the beginning of a zombie outbreak but does it competently enough to be passable.

It follows two strangers who are forced to barricade themselves inside a block of flats and try to survive. Basically your usual tropes so don't expect anything original here.

It plays the realistic angle and reminded me of the 28 Days Later (2002) movies despite these actually being zombies.

It looks okay, the characters are passable but it's so unoriginal it made my balls rattle. It really is paint by numbers stuff so if you like generic zombie films this may very well be what you're looking for.

Sadly after countless zombie epics including the more recent Train To Busan (2016) and Wyrmwood (2014) I do find myself expecting more.

The Good:

Realistic approach

Generally passable stuff

The Bad:

No originality at all

Lead bounces from annoying to pathetic

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Bent fork heads don't make the best projectiles

Fork desecration is a womans primary concern during a zombie apocalypse

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 actually am reviewing this film just to push its rating up because I think that the current rating might put people off who would otherwise really enjoy this film.

Berlin Undead is a 28 days later style horror flick with realistic (rather than Hollywood-style) characters and a believable storyline. The low-budget doesn't affect the quality at all, except where the special effects are concerned... thankfully, the director seems to have been aware of this weakness as he has limited their use.

Watch it late at night and I'm pretty sure you'll get creeped out and/or have trouble sleeping afterwards... which is what horror is all about!