Dead Air

Dead Air - yet another zombie film. And this one doesn't even have the budget of the Resident Evil films, so that doesn't really bode well.

It's about a zombie outbreak (or rather 'infected' as the 'zombies' resemble the 'infected' people from 28 Days Later rather than George Romero's slow-moving 'shufflers') in Los Angeles which starts off near a late-night radio station. The staff there have no idea what's happening and do their best to cover the sensational news story as best they can.

It's mainly set inside the towerblock/radio studios which masks the lack of budget as best it can. However, the film's biggest problem is another ('zombie') movie made the year before called Pontypool. It too does exactly the same thing, i.e. a low budget zombie movie set in a late night radio station where a smart-alec 'shock-jock' covers the outbreak.

I quite enjoyed Dear Air. The characters were pretty believable and the plot slightly different as to the zombies' origins, but, all the way through it, I just couldn't get Pontypool out of my head.

If you haven't seen Pontypool and like zombie movies, I would definitely recommend Dead Air. However, if you have seen Pontypool, there's not an awful lot new here and it might come across as retreading old ground.

If you watch one movie with a radio station and an infection make it "Pontypool". If you want to watch more than one, this one is decent enough for you to watch it once. It's certainly refreshing to watch Bill Mosley in a different sort of role/character. While he's doing a good job, McHattie was just terrific and could not be matched (which of course is also a sign, that Pontypool has the better script and therefor also the better story).

The effects are good enough for a small budget and the movie does do a decent job in getting the movie along. You have to excuse the movie for some stupid character behaviour of course (something that quite a few horror movies seem to be infected with). If you can do that, you will be able to enjoy it (or if you cut the movie quite some slack, you will even rate it higher than I did)

I liked this film a lot. People have described it as like 28 Day Later - it isn't. Both films have zombies - the comparison ends there. This film is about post 911 paranoia - it says it right at the start of the film before any zombies appear the shock jock radio presenter said tonights shows is all about paranoia.

If you liked The Man From Earth or Frequency then I think you'd like this. It has that similar feel of a stage play or simple drama with heart. The actors were great- really strong in ensemble. I kind of fancy Patricia Tallman - she is easy on the eyes and she always seems like she has a warm heart - she always gives heart to a scene. The lead was really well played - he has a great voice and this film is nice to listen to which is a pleasant change from some of the more bombastic screamy action films you normally see.

So a simple genre movie with some decent exposition, terrific acting and solid pacing. You can find fault in this movie if you try to compare with movies that it is not - but I would prefer to watch this than some low calibre action crap. The world doesn't need another cheap action zombie horror - but the world could do with another few of these movies - thoughtful simple idea driven drama's. To all those involved - great job. Have watched it twice already and I enjoyed it both time.

Just have to disagree with kosmap. Better script does not equal better story. You can easily have a better story idea but a worse script. That review should be ignored simply because of the ridiculousness of that comment. Anyways imo this was better than Pontypool. I like the main character in that movie better though.

I watched this film mistakenly thinking that it was that other radio station zombie flick. The shonky production values and low-rent cast soon gave away that this was another one of the those cheap sci-fi channel style knock offs.

The central performance from Bill Moseley is initially quite engaging as the dubious radio shock jock but as the film goes on becomes less and less convincing as he is actually required to act. The rest of the cast have little to do other than look concerned and have no depth whatsoever.

The cinematography is dull, flat and completely uninspired, like so many of these kind of films. It doesn't even manage a decent bit of convincing gore, the zombie make up is literally pathetic apart from one notable exception towards the end of the film.

The film tries to inject originality and a message into it's concoction of half baked and ripped off ideas by somehow equating this outbreak with intolerance towards Islam and the war on terror. This is woefully handled with all the intellectual clout of a 6 year old. As the characters and seemingly the writers are unable to distinguish the difference between race and religion - describing all people of a certain skin colour as "muslims." Most notably one character is revealed to be Muslim by skin colour alone. At the same time the "muslim" terrorists who cause the outbreak are the usual psychopathic stereotype.

Presumably the far far superior Pontypool had a similar budget as Dead Air yet shines everywhere where this film fails miserably.