The Dead (2010)

The Dead (R) - Review

"Script is Dead on Arrival"

Low budgets, first time filmmakers, a decade of work to get it produced, The Dead is an imagining of the George Romero Rules styled zombies in Africa, seen through the eyes of a native Soldier and a blackops styled survivalist.  The continent has been lost to the zombie host, society has broken down and all there is left is to survive and save your loved ones.  It's a shallow thin plot that feels longer than its run time would suggest.  Slower than a corpse in a wheelchair, the movie simply throws up situations for the characters to fight through and does so again 10 minutes later, there is no narrative, there is almost no spoken dialogue.  The zombie effects are basic and unremarkable (probably most are done in post production far cheaper than applying makeup to the local African extras), the entire film looks like one long deleted scene from a movie with zgrade potential.  To be fair there are some moments of cinematographic beauty, though again to be fair any Africa-bound tourist with a modern DSLR could capture them equally well.  Then the rotten no-good ending happens and all you can think is that the zombies aren't the only soulless unimaginative cannibals present here and that perhaps the film makers have a future in Hollywood after all (or at least the SYFY Channel).

4.5 Bland Digital Gore FX out of 10 (MEDIOCRE)