Rammbock

Rammbock otherwise known as Berlin Dead and Siege Of The Dead is a German zombie movie which tells the very generic story of the beginning of a zombie outbreak but does it competently enough to be passable.

It follows two strangers who are forced to barricade themselves inside a block of flats and try to survive. Basically your usual tropes so don't expect anything original here.

It plays the realistic angle and reminded me of the 28 Days Later (2002) movies despite these actually being zombies.

It looks okay, the characters are passable but it's so unoriginal it made my balls rattle. It really is paint by numbers stuff so if you like generic zombie films this may very well be what you're looking for.

Sadly after countless zombie epics including the more recent Train To Busan (2016) and Wyrmwood (2014) I do find myself expecting more.

The Good:

Realistic approach

Generally passable stuff

The Bad:

No originality at all

Lead bounces from annoying to pathetic

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Bent fork heads don't make the best projectiles

Fork desecration is a womans primary concern during a zombie apocalypse

I actually do zombie extra in movies with no credit (I'm formerly from Pittsburgh, and represent the George Romero team as a full-on fan of the genre), and these people are having way too much fun.

Way, way too much fun! Though as a... um... "professional zombie", no rule is broken, (a joke from one of my directors: "zombies do not RUN!!!" They don't) and if a zombie-fan, a total thrill-ride.

GREAT STORY!!! GREAT ENDING!!! Who cares the budget: no one can tell, cuz it's good. As philosophical as I expect from Germany, but without the total angst. Together, yet apart. Hopeful, and hopeless. God, it's just GOOD!!! I really wish I was an extra on this one. I'd die for it.

RAMMBOCK is a brilliant little "infected zombie" movie from Germany. At a mere 1 hour in length, it gets right into the action with a small group of survivors trapped in an apartment complex.

A mysterious infection is turning anyone bitten into mindless, orally-foaming, killing machines.

This movie has two major strengths: #1- The characters, though in a panic, are not stupid. They come up with some innovative ideas for their escape and / or survival. #2- There's a central theme of humanity within the carnage and chaos. This makes it more realistic, even heartbreaking when tragic losses occur.

Don't worry though, there are plenty of shocks to be had!

One of the best, most original modern zombie films to emerge...

A man (Michael) goes to Berlin to try and reconcile with his girlfriend (Gabi) under the guise of "returning her keys". When he gets to her house he finds that she's not there and that zombies are ruling the neighborhood. In other words, they're all over the f!!cking place. With the help of a young man (Harper) he is forced to barricade himself in her apartment. In fact everyone in the apartment complex that overlooks a courtyard is trapped; they're only able to communicate with each other by shouting across the courtyard. How the outbreak of zombification started is not known. A special report that conveniently begins as soon as Harper turns on a TV set, highlights terrorism as one of the public and news media speculations (a "German September 11th"). To this, the authorities respond with "ridiculous". So the people in the movie don't really know and neither do we the viewer. But who cares? This is typical of many zombie movies. The important thing is that this is one of the better made ones.

The zombies in this movie are aggressive, ravenous, and know how to hustle for a bite and taste of human flesh. I think it's beginning to dawn on horror movie producers that one could still have some kind of life with the slow zombies since the only way they could catch a healthy man, woman, or child is by surprise. With these new strain of zombies you're pretty much shut down in your house and really horrified. I mean, no work, no school, no social life. Anyway, some of the challenges these trapped people face is to find a way to close the gate to the courtyard below and to navigate the apartment complex to get away from zombies and bring assistance to each other. We all love situations in movies where people are trapped or confined in some place and have to use their courage and ingenuity to survive ---if they're done well. And it's done well here; very entertaining. Don't miss! Love, Boloxxxi.

I always thought that a low budget zombie movie should be a lot better than the big block busters. Maybe set in my home country of Romania, where guns are rarely allowed and even cops don't carry them much, the story would gain a lot of power and the ingenuity of the people would be brought into view.

Rammbock is exactly the kind of film I was thinking about: set in Berlin, the Eastern side I guess, with extraordinarily ordinary people getting caught by the zombie epidemic in a banal building block. Complex story, a few people, authentic reactions.

I am sure the makers of the movie realized that the true force of the movie is in the obvious of the lowbudgetness, and so they didn't even conform to the length standards of regular movies: it all lasts just an hour, more akin to an episode of something.

Bottom line: it is hard to identify with any of the people in the film, simply because they are so ordinary and like normal persons that we refuse to. I watched the movie with English dubbing, which I hated, but I couldn't find the German version. The zombie story was not developed in any way: we don't know how it happened, why or how to stop it. In the end, the true lead character is the story. I liked the film and I would recommend it to viewers of zombie movies.