Operation Undead

Initially I was thrilled to watch the 2024 Thai zombie movie "Operation Undead" from writer and director Kome Kongkiat Komesiri. Sure, I had never heard about it, but a movie that combines two of my favorite things, Asian movies and zombie movies, of course I needed no persuasion to check out the movie.

But my excitement was short-lived. While the concept behind the movie is interesting, the execution from script to screen just didn't work out all that well. This wasn't your average zombie movie, by any means, for better or worse. Writer and director Kome Kongkiat Komesiri took a gamble and opted to have zombies with memories and limited speech functions, and it just didn't tickle my interest. And it became a struggle to sit through the movie.

I was not familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, which was something that spoke in favor of the movie. But the storyline just stood no chance, despite the fact that the acting performances in the movie were fair enough.

The special effects in the movie were also good, but again hardly mattered much as the storyline just brutally cut it short. Why would the eyes of the infected Thai people turn two different colors? That I just simply couldn't understand. It made zero sense.

"Operation Undead" was a disappointment to say the least, and it is not a movie that I was entertained by. Nor is it a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time. If you are a zombie fan, check out writer and director Kome Kongkiat Komesiri's movie, you might just find some enjoyment here, despite me not doing so.

My rating of "Operation Undead" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

About to leave for war, a small squadron of Thai soldiers in a remote village is suddenly inundated with a strange Japanese-made biological virus that raises the dead and brings them back to life, forcing the two sides to work together to stop the creatures from carrying out a deadly plan.

This was a massively enjoyable and entertaining effort with a lot to like about it. Among its better elements is a strong and impactful storyline that creates a series of effective storylines within here. The initial series of scenes here focusing on the exploits of the trop getting their first hints of life in military training with their rambunctious antics, childish pranks, and disrespect for authority before going into combat give us a great chance to get to know who they are and what type of life they're going to lead once the war is over. That it only briefly touches on the actual war itself, with the first combat bringing them into contact with the zombies on the outskirts of the storyline, manages to offer up a realistic enough connection to human events to allow for an intriguing gateway into this universe. From there, the film spends a great deal of time offering up the kind of insight and treatment into the zombies that's rarely afforded by most other movies. Given their backstory as an agent of a Japanese chemical virus that's gotten loose and turning the infected rabid, that isn't altogether new, and that is glossed over nicely by the scenes showing their community and bonding as a whole. With them to be shown pining for lost lives when they were still human, communicating, grieving, or even forming plans of action together in far more intelligent reasoning than expected, it draws a fine parallel to the dehumanizing nature of war itself, turning youthful, vibrant soldiers into hardened, bloodthirsty maniacs as a result. While still being monstrous creatures, this sympathy towards them is quite palpable and adds a fun dimension to the film. Still, the main gist to be enjoyed here is the high-end zombie carnage, as this falls in line with genre conventions immensely well. The initial attack featuring a soldier escaping battle only to fall into quicksand and get rescued at the last possible second by what he thinks are his squad-members only to find it be the zombies is masterfully executed, while later rampages across villages and military outposts showing them feasting on decimated remains and ripping people apart, serve to get nice and bloody. The various scenes attempting to capture them so that they can study them have some energy to them, and a frenetic series of encounters with the ravenous creatures on sandy beaches or inside darkened caves illuminated only by the flashing gun barrels are fun and lively, all giving the film quite a lot to enjoy. There isn't much, but there are a few slight drawbacks to this one. The main issue here is the series of overly melodramatic moments in the middle section that manage to repeatedly hammer home the troubled nature of the soldiers without accomplishing much. We already know their troubled state from the numerous experiments performed on them by the Japanese soldiers, comparing everything to the treatment of their fellow Thai group, so to continually hammer home this state of being makes for a repetitive and overlong feeling, drawing out what's going on. While not needing to be removed, this section is in need of a trim to avoid doubling down on aspects we've already gotten familiar with by that point. Ignoring a logical ending point to continue for another ten minutes also hurts this somewhat, but they're not detrimental issues overall.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity, and a brief sex scene.

I watched this with high expectations but it all become boring the zombies have feelings they talk to each other they even gather up to plot a plan on a takedown. I couldn't be making this up surely but yes its true.. zombies normally are fast or slow and look crazy and want to eat ya'll .. not cry moan and have vision on family pass and talk to each other like its a night out on the town... the gore scenes are 10/10 with some good camera shots ........ the quality was 10/10 the acting was 10/10 effects were 10/10 the zombies were 10/10.. what let this down was the actual length and zombies talking and it became boring to watch.. i say watch it for yourself and some may enjoy it but for me once was enough i love zombie and apocalyptic movies but this isnt going to be one i watch again and ive watch many over and over again ... i gave the rating a 5/10 thats for being nice but give it a go.

There are now literally 100's of these B quality Zombie movies. I have a hard time watching them now most of them are so poorly done.

So I'm here to tell you Operation Undead was excellent. Granted some of the effects and makeup was cheesy, but the whole premise of this movie and the character development was such a nice surprise. I loved it. It's not Train To Buslan, but it's close. Give it a go, you want be sad.

The idea of humanizing the undead or giving them intelligence and emotional complexity is nothing new.

George A. Romero did it in Day Of The Dead and his following sequels. Return Of The Living Dead (the entire series) did it. And many, many others have tried as well. Some were successful. Most were not.

This film attempts to make one see the undead as intelligent, complex, emotional beings while at the same time show them as the brutal flesh eaters they really are.

And? It kinda falls flat.

There are logic holes and confusing convoluted plot points that take you out of the film and leave you saying, "why?"

The gore effects are somewhat impressive and creative but the CGI is less than stellar and in some scenes it is so obviously bad you think they switched over to a 10 year old video game suddenly.

Don't think however, that this makes it a bad film.

It's actually quite good. Entertaining. Exciting. Intelligent. Fun.

It's just flawed and can feel somewhat unfinished at times.

It is well worth watching one time but I don't see this as being a repeated watch experience.