The Dead

I didn't expect that much from this movie. My first thoughts were: it is not even B-movie, rather C. But from the first minutes I realized that it leaves an impression of..."28 Days Later" and "The Walking Dead". It's kind of long shot, but that's what came to mind. While it is not as detailed and well played as those two, it has it's own new look on the old theme. Decent make-up, good camera work, the interesting contrast between gore images and beautiful "vues d'Afrique" savannah - all together with natural actor's work exceeds the initial shallow (to say the least) expectations. I don't think I will watch it again (well, not any time soon), but certainly I would not mind to see the next chapter. It looks like there is some space left for the Part II. PS: there is no cheap synthetic music (you all know it;)), that usually fills in the "wordless" episodes in some really boring movies. On my opinion, this sort of mindless soundtrack always serves as indicator. Sometimes I wonder if they use that sort of "music" as a warning: "it is going to be boring..." It's absence is a huge plus.

The Dead. Its not the most creative of titles, reading it you pretty much know it's either going to be a James Joyce adaptation or a film about zombies. This time it's the latter and the stripped down title actually works, since this is pretty much a stripped down zombie film. Moving away from fast zombies, crowd pleasing style and "fun" gore gags, The Dead is bleak, numbing and even repetitive, an approach I actually enjoyed as it seems to get far closer than many films to the real horror of such events. It stuns with visuals and draws the heart with an inspired central heroic partnership, but by and large is many leagues away from the shallow silliness of all too many popular zombie films these days. Following at first the journey of Lt. Brian Murphy, wanting nothing more than to return home from a zombie outbreak stricken Africa, then Murphy and Sgt. Daniel Dembele, the latter trying to find his son, this is a quest film as much as horror, the journey as important as the grue. A first time feature for writers/directors/brothers Howard and Jonathon Ford (the latter also co handled cinematography with Jon Ford), The Dead moves at a dignified, steady paced, sporadically shot through with brief but intense bursts of tense violence heavy on head shots, laced with a growing respect and friendship between the two heroes and occasionally touched with poignancy shining in the gloom of the situation and ardour of the trek. Its skilfully handled, laconic stuff with a documentarians eye for the location (I never knew Burkina Faso was such a beautiful place), characters suitably rounded and likable and a powerful finale, overall it's a film with a punch. Rob Freeman as Lt Murphy plays things like a tough guy character actor of yore, impassive and resourceful determination with a human edge, while Prince David Oseia does equally well as Sgt. Dembele, carrying himself with authority and intelligence. As with any such film, the zombies are a major part of the experience, and The Dead succeeds nicely here. Make up effects are handled by Max Van De Banks and the zombies are simply portrayed, dead eyed, pallid, dirty and some bloodied, they move at a refreshing ominous creep as well, taking after the terrors of Romero pictures rather than any cheese of recent years. Gore is decent too, a realistic approach is taken over setting up lots of fun gimmicky kills, the headshots can get repetitive but there are a few other methods on display, a couple of which are real grisly crowd pleasers. By and large I had a fine time with this one and I hardly even expected too, having gone to watch it on a whim. The film does lag in the middle, stuttering a bit even in its already measured pacing, but it doesn't take too long to return to its groove. More irksomely, there are one or two undeveloped scenes which are too rapidly glossed over, as if time or the budget ran too short, there are some editing blips as well, though this may well have been intentional it still comes across a bit of a niggle. Still one of the best zombie films I've seen in a while though, well recommended.

"I'm just trying to survive." Lt. Brian Murphy (Freeman) is part of the last evacuation plane out of Africa. The country is in a war where the dead come back as zombies. When the plane crashes he is the lone survivor and now he needs to make it to the airport on his own. When he meets a local sergeant they decide to work together to make it to safety. I will start by saying that I have never really liked zombie movies (except for "Shaun of the Dead"). The "Dawn Of The Dead" and "28 Days" movies never were my thing. This movie however was great. Much like the movie "Let Me In", which I thought was what the world would be like if vampires actually existed, this movie is the most "realistic" zombie movie I have ever seen. If zombies did exist I think it would be like this movie and not the glorified gore that other movies show. For someone who doesn't like movies like this I was very impressed. Overall, one of, if not the, best zombie movie I have ever seen. I recommend this. I give it a B+.

The Dead is a stunningly shot zombie movie with some notable differences. The most obvious is the African setting, but that's not all. The zombies themselves are haunting and macabre: many were played by locals, some of whom were amputees. They seldom make any noise but are present throughout almost all of the film, often seen in the distance wandering in somnambulistic trances without any of the over-acting that's usually associated with these films. They are understated, and scarily so. However, once they get close they are as gruesome as anything in a Romero film.

At times the feel of the film reminded me of Zombie Flesh-Eaters. Some of that was down to the edits - none of that "blink and you'll miss it" MTV generation editing here. This had the epic feel of late 60s and early 70s movies (think the original "Planet of the Apes"). The vastness of Africa was captured wonderfully, and this only added to the typical zombie existentialist theme of there being no exit: no one ever gets out alive (or do they?)

Rob Freeman does a great job in the central role and there were some terrific supporting actors. The only slight gripe I had with this film was the dialogue. Mercifully there wasn't much of it, but such lines as we got to hear were rather stilted. The characters were used more as "talking heads" to explain things to the audience, and were always weakest when speaking.

It's hard to believe this was shot on a low budget. The directors have done a great job generating remorseless tension (another slight issue is that there is no lightness in the film - it piles tension upon tension and never lets go; it's not an easy ride). The cinematography is first rate and the soundtrack is haunting, evocative, and never obtrusive.

As a zombie movie, this is right up there with the 2005 Dawn of the Dead and the excellent Quarantine. One of the best zombie films I've seen, and (dialogue aside) up there with the TV series, The Walking Dead.

"The Dead" was really quite a surprise. And it is also a zombie movie way out of the ordinary; it is set in Africa, something you don't see every day. But if you have read David Wellington's "Monster" trilogy, then you will love this movie.

Let me say that the African setting was really a nice breath of fresh air in the zombie genre. It worked so well, because it was miles after miles of savanna and badlands. No big skyscrapers here, no high-tech underground facilities, no narrow and winding dark alleys. A couple of villages though, so it was cool.

However, one thing that puzzled me in "The Dead" was the amount of zombies that were shambling about in the savanna. I would have assumed that there wouldn't be that many walking around in the middle of nowhere. Near the villages, yes, but in the middle of the savanna, no! And oddly enough every time the two main characters in the movie stopped somewhere, there were suddenly (and always!) a group of zombies shambling in to attack them. That was so stupid. But I guess it was the simplest way to work in a heap of zombies into the story.

Basically the story revolves around two people only. But it works out well enough, despite the movie moving ahead at a fairly slow speed. But that was not a bad thing, because the movie was far from boring. Just don't expect speed, action and lots of adrenalin, though.

The cast in "The Dead" was nice and they did good jobs with their roles. And the two lead roles were well cast.

One thing that could have improved the movie for me, was if the zombies had glazed over milky eyes instead of those weird white eyes; it just didn't really make them have that classic zombie/dead person look. But hey, it was a minor thing. It is just me that pays attention to the small details.

All in all, "The Dead" was really a great movie and it was really nice to see this type of approach to the zombie genre. So thumbs up for the movie makers. And if you are a zombie aficionado like me, then you definitely want to check out "The Dead".