Zombie Massacre 2: Reich of the Dead

Actually not really. But it sounded good. Like the title sort of. But then again, we've been there, seen that. Something that cannot be said about the characters in this, who are oblivious to what is going to happen. To distinguish itself, the movie tries to go meta or even philosophical if you will at times. There's a muddled time-line or at least a "flash", which seems unnecessary, complicating things further, getting in the way of any fun this could've been.

Still better than the first one, this hasn't really put anything in its favor acting wise. Effects are decent for a low budget movie or if you're willing to lower your own expectations. But the story will not keep you at the edge of your seat, the ending will rather confuse (until part 3 will be released? If it's going to be released that is) than enlighten you ...

After the events of Zombie Massacre (2013), you would imagine that this film would be a sequel. You are mistaken. This film is not even a prequel.

Zombie Massacre 2: Reich of the Dead (2015) details an independent story set in WWII. A small group of American soldiers finds shelter in an apparently abandoned building as they try to call for help.

We know that things are going to get worse. And the film does a good job of keeping the tension going. I was waiting for a zombie to appear at any moment, but the tension continued and continued. And continued. And continued ...

When you get to the first zombie action, you've already watched a third of the movie. This is not bad, but the zombie encounter is disappointing. Disappointing enough that you label this movie "stalled." And you are correct: the film is really stalled.

In the film's setting, I assume that "zombie knowledge" is not a common thing. Still, it seems that the story tries to explore the concept that a bite will turn you into a zombie, which I think doesn't make sense for the time portrayed in the film.

The performance is acceptable, but it is still weak.

The story as a whole does not present anything interesting. The ending tries to make everything mysterious and sinister, but I thought it was too confusing.

I would not recommend this film to any ordinary viewer, just for fans of zombie movies.

If you like watching poorly acted soldiers exchanging nonsensical banters about war while occasionally shooting Nazi zombies, you might last the first act. However, if you want actually plot or coherent dialogues, you'll do better watching bloopers from any other war movie. This is as vague as narrative as it can be, even by standard of B-movie.

There's basically no structure to the story at all. People would tell war stories for half of the movie, engage in obscure overly dramatic military propaganda and suddenly the shooting starts to happen. Characters pop out of nowhere and disappear altogether from the story, no one knows what happen to that one guy who was there earlier nor do they seem to care.

Zombie and Nazi are mixed into the narrative, yet the soldiers' reactions are inconsistent. It's as though someone shuffles random screenplays and just tosses them together. Acting is wooden, not that the material offers anything conclusive. It's marred with vague gibberish and at times dreamy near hallucinogenic scenes. Don't expect any finesse to technical aspect either, cinematography and effect are low budget mediocrity.

A lot of pretentious talk about war without war itself, it will painfully bores audience like zombie bites and by now capitalizing on zombie fevers feels like an old gimmick.

WWII battle worn soldiers come across a Nazi complex where experiments are taking place to resurrect dead prisoners.

Zombie Massacre 2: Reich of the Dead (2015) is dark, gloomy, more serious than their 2011 entertaining ride Eaters and more sombre and grounded than Zombie Massacre a.k.a Apocalypse Z.

Again filmmaker talents Luca Boni and Marco Ristori deliver a grim competently constructed bleak zombie horror that is stylishly shot with some good blood and gore effects presented on a saturated colour palette. The practical effects come better off that some of the CGI explosions and splatter. The sets and location look outstanding for the budget.

With actors Andrew Harwood Mills, Dan van Husen and Lucy Drive who is stunning as Erin the rest of the cast are on form and give performances as their picked off one by one that far surpass those in the first outing.

Zombie Massacre 2 is slower and more dramatic than Boni and Ristori's previous work, and while the story isn't the most original there's plenty of gore, creepy visuals, dead soldiers, vertical white stripes zombies, creepy faces and the like.

Boni and Ristori are becoming somewhat cult directors and need a breakout mainstream film but for the moment we have to wait a little longer, nevertheless, it's still agreeable zombie fodder.

Another zero-budget zombie film, from the Italian team who made the poor EATERS. The good news is that Reich of the Dead is a lot better than that film, although still not particularly good; the problem is that the story plays things out very predictably on a tight budget, so there's no room for anything memorable or original. FRANKENSTEIN'S ARMY this isn't!

Instead, what we get are a couple of characters wandering around some gloomy locations and occasionally encountering some zombies that shuffle around. The zombie threat is zero as is the horror content, although this is definite a bad taste vibe going on in the way the zombies are all dressed in concentration camp uniforms - they were former prisoners experimented upon by a mad surgeon.

The one thing Reich of the Dead has going for it is some surprisingly decent direction; no shaky-cam work here, just solid cinematography which makes the most of the dreary and drab setting. It's probably the best direction I've seen in a low budget zombie flick, so it's a shame it was wasted on such a non-starter of a story. Too much of the slender running time is padded out with boring conversations on the nature of war and B-movie veteran Dan van Husen barely gets a look in.