World War Dead: Rise of the Fallen

Had it been a production of a group of high school kids it would've been perceived as funny and rather a successful first attempt of movie making. But being as this project actually has some established actors in it, one can only marvel at how that came about to be.

The film makes good use of many old tricks and methods in order to scare the viewer without actually showing much of anything. When done properly it can work, however in this case it's just sad and shows clearly how the film budget must've been no more than a couple of thousand euros.

The film is just terrible.

Boring and pointless. Really, there's not much one could say about this movie. You shouldn't watch in unless you're really, really looking for a horror movie than even barely mentions WWI.

Found footage features depend on one thing above all: believability. Almost every found footage movie begins by giving you some indication that the footage was discovered and "compiled" by authorities, then later leaked to the general masses. In short, it's a documentary. This illusion is generally effective when dealing with anything possible (floods, natural disasters, outbreaks of disease, serial killers), but becomes weak and convoluted when faced with anything improbable (zombies, vampires, ghosts).

As this is a zombie feature, believability is already at stake. The initial implication that this is "real" immediately makes no impression. It comes off as merely routine.

Shortly after, other factors follow that contribute nothing to believability, and yet continue to be standards in found footage movie making:

1. Too many camera angles to be possible for one camera.

2. Sound is too consistent as the scenes jumps back and forth between angles. An impossibility for one camera.

3. Lighting is too good to be real. It's clearly studio work.

4. The camera continually falls into the perfect position for filming, even though no one is thinking about it or even using it.

5. The fact that the camera is still on!

6. There's even a scene where the camera itself is videoed! Are you kidding me? Really???

7. All the digitally induced fuzz doesn't even look remotely real, or even have a reason for happening.

8. There's a soundtrack. Nice of the authorities to put that in so that viewers of their documentary will be more interested.

Then there's the acting, and the plot.. I'll just sum it all up with "It's unconvincing."

All of these little pieces simply do not add up, instead the movie suffers from the greatest weakness a movie can suffer from: It was boring.

Oh, and it finishes with some grinding electric guitar music, which is the only true constant in zombie films.

Its obvious most other reviewers arent familiar with fiction. It is a movie about WWI zombies if you were looking for realism then thats your problem and why you wont like most films.

Having said that, this was an ok found footage movie. Nothing new or innovative but perfectly serviceable. The acting is on par with what you would expect from this type of movie decent performances at best. pretty tame zombie effects and gore. The character of the director marcus was terrible and found myself annoyed by almost all of his dialogue and interactions with every other character, but that seems to be the fault of the writing.

So final word is, if you enjoy found footage type films give it a whirl but if not you probably wont find anything enjoyable here. Personally I love the Genre and thought it was middle of the road quality.

World War Dead: Rise Of The Fallen: Found footage Zombie film. A film crew go to the Somme Battlefield intent on making a film about army units which disappeared during the Battle. Tension between the presenter and the historian are exacerbated by an ego-maniacal director. Figures appear on the horizon, a local tries to warn them about le supernatural. The historian relates a legend about a German regiment who were cursed and turned into the undead. They all have a chuckle at this, but subsequently find the remains of a Rhodesian soldier with an African Black Magic Amulet..

Then the Zombies attack. But the crazed director wants to continue with the documemtary. Attacks (at night) in a field enclosed by woods and underground trench tunnels add to a claustrophobic atmosphere.

Social commentary, satire and a dark vein of humour run through this very British Horror Film. IMDb average only give it 3.2 but on my Z-Meter it gets 6.5/10.