The Dead 2: India

An infectious epidemic spreads through India as an American turbine engineer (Joseph Millson) learns that his pregnant girlfriend is trapped near the slums of Mumbai. Now he must battle his way across a 300-mile wasteland of the ravenous undead.

The biggest complaint this film seems to receive from people is that it is a repeat, or rehash, of the first film. An outside in a foreign land who has to travel across great distances while fighting off zombies. And that is a fair complaint.

But the Ford brothers do it well, with an amazing cinematography, and beautiful color palette, that showcases the beauty of India. Not to mention better than average zombie effects. For what is probably a relatively low budget film, it looks like a Hollywood-caliber production.

I enjoyed The Dead, which was an excellent old school zombie film fitting perfectly into the George A. Romero "Dead" universe. Many zombie films now are more action orientated, but The Dead had a haunting, even lyrical quality and it was beautifully shot and scored. It reminded me of survival adventure films I grew up with, like The Naked Prey and even Nic Roeg's Walkabout.

In this sequel the zombie plague spreads from Africa to India and we follow a new main character, who is strikingly similar to the lead in the first film. Some of the virtues of the first film are still evident here. The cinematography is beautiful taking in some stunning landscapes, the score is great and there is an emphasis on atmosphere similar to the original.

Unfortunately the second film contrives much more of a human drama and that's where the sequel becomes problematic. The hero has to rescue his pregnant Indian girlfriend, who comes complete with a traditional, disapproving father and neither the writing nor the acting are up to the challenge. The film lapses into melodramatic cliché and inadvertent comedy every time we spend time with the female lead and her family in Mumbai. Both "The Dead" films cast mostly non-actors. In an ideal case this can lend characters a sense of authenticity but here results in some awkward performances. In the first film the necessary alliance between the the engineer and the soldier was understated and not a lot of emoting was required. Here the lead actress looks uncomfortably out of her depth and her character lacks any qualities that would make us understand why our hero would be traveling 300 miles across the country to save her. To be fair, the actress tries hard but she isn't given much to do apart from crying and screaming.

Instead of the dignified, stoic soldier of the first film, here the hero gets a cute orphan right out of Indiana Jones and Temple of Doom as a sidekick. By not having a local character fighting next to him, the sight of a white character killing his way through hordes of brown skinned zombies becomes uncomfortable to watch.

On top of these problems, this is a film where characters do unbelievably stupid things in situations where they are surrounded by zombies to repeatedly get themselves into danger. And these folks never seem to learn from their mistakes. Twice the lead talks to his girlfriend about something confidential on the phone and twice her father snatches the mobile from her mid-conversation to overhear something not meant for him, which then sets him off shouting at her paramour. By the second time this almost comes to qualify as a running gag.

On the up side there are a few tense sequences and some decent set pieces. The non-computer enhanced gore is plentiful and inventive, which still makes this worth watching for zombie fans but every time the film takes us back to Mumbai for the ensuing family histrionics, the film stops dead for some eye-rolling Bollywood melodrama. At least it spares us a musical number.

At times, "The Dead 2: India" (2013), seems like a carbon copy of its predecessor three years earlier. Both "The Dead" and "The Dead 2" portray American male protagonists on a lengthy overland trek to reach a wife or girlfriend. Both were shot on location in an overseas setting. (The original took place in Africa.) And both portray a second protagonist who is a native of the country. (In this case it's a little boy portrayed by Anand Krishna Goyal. Even a curmudgeon like me has got to admit — that kid is adorable.)

I liked the first movie a bit better. This one feels a little hastily put together, in terms of its script and directing.

It does manage to succeed somewhat with the things that made the first film decent viewing. Its desert locations are beautifully shot, and the filmmakers bring back some of the original's slow-burn horror elements. The zombies here are usually as slow as snails — slower even than the zombies of George A. Romero's genre-defining early films. But they're also quiet, and they converge en masse when our hero lets his guard down. And the occasional appearance of a rare feisty specimen lead to some genuine jump scares. The movie also effectively employs what appears to be a low-budget special effect — the monsters' eyes are of an opal-white, otherworldly color. (I'm guessing those are colored contact lenses?) The trick works, the zombies are scary, and "The Dead 2" successfully provides a kind of "creeping horror" that is rare for today's horror films.

That wasn't enough, however, to rescue this movie entirely from feeling like a retread of the original. I'd describe this as an average viewing experience for a horror fan, and I'd rate it a 6 out of 10.

"Nicholas Burton" (Joseph Millson) is an electrical engineer who is currently in India working on wind farms. His girlfriend, "Ishani Sharma" (Meenu Mishra) has just told him she is pregnant and he is determined to go to Mumbai to see her as soon as possible. Unfortunately, a zombie epidemic has suddenly erupted which seriously jeopardizes everything. Now, rather than reveal any more of the movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this film greatly resembles its predecessor in a number of ways. Although there is only a slight connection to the original film I actually think this sequel is slightly better because it adds more of a human element. However, just the like the first film it is a dry zombie picture with absolutely no humor or anything else which deviates from the horror at hand. And while I have no doubt that true zombie fanatics will appreciate this movie, I also think that it might appeal to other viewers as well because it isn't one of those cheap-looking zombie films by any means. Accordingly, I rate it as slightly above average.

True to its title, the story unfolds in India. While it's a challenging setting, it differs from the constant extreme landscapes of the first installment. In India, we do get a taste of this, but the main challenges of survival mostly lies in the largely populated cities, which has led to utter chaos.

While this zombie movie was reasonably good, I couldn't help but notice a few significant flaws, including one aspect that appeared downright impossible and other elements that seemed nonsensical. My speculation is that these issues were likely overlooked due to constraints like time or funding.

All in all, this movie wasn't all bad; there were moments I found good and others not so much. It notably contains one of the most sorrowful and gut-wrenching scenes in any zombie film I've encountered.

Although I enjoyed this one somewhat, I can't say it's one of my favorites.