Dead Set [DVD]

The very idea of this series/ film honked. A fictional Big Brother where a coincidental zombie invasion during an eviction night leaves the housemates obliviously bickering within their fan-proof abode.

Hmmm...

The fact that Channel 4's uber-MILF Davina McCall was playing herself led to strong indicators that this would be a cheesy Halloween Trick or Treat embarrass-athon or Shaun of the Dead without the laughs.

As it is, this is one of the best pieces of zombie fiction I've ever seen and is sometimes utterly scary and horrifying with some of the darkest of dark humour. Andy Nyman alone makes this worth watching as the vile BB producer.

The editing is fast paced and jerky and while some people have moaned about this, I personally feel it gives the show the chaotic and panic stricken look that it is striving for. These zombies are powerful, sprinting undead and even one coming after you is bad news let alone a ravenous horde.

The cast are both unlikeable and endearing in equal measure. Davina McCall was always irritating so it's fun to see her get her throat ripped out and then chowing down on someone's intestines. Kelly (Jaime Winstone) is no angel and is cuckolding her loyal, sweet boyfriend with the office Romeo. However her bravery makes us overlook this. And Patrick (Nyman) is one of the most memorable villains in zombie movie history. He has NO redeeming features whatsoever and just to hammer this point home the script has him throw a guy in a wheelchair into the path of a zombie.

Writer Charlie Brooker was apparently looking for the kind of feel that Keifer Sutherland's "24" has and to some extent the show succeeds with mini-plots branching off from the main thread. It's also like Spooks in some degree as it kills off the likeable characters as easily as the bad ones with the same gleeful abandon as everyone's favourite MI5 drama. It was sad to see likeable stud Danny's fear stricken face as he's chased into the studio and poor Claire is the first victim of Patrick's advanced self preservation skills.

Some of the scenes really grab you by the throat, especially (and most surprisingly) those involving the zombified Davina McCall. The bit where she pounds down the corridor after Patrick is scary as is her relentless vigil outside the door (albeit as a zombie too stupid to use the handle to open it). Kudos too for the scene where an ever increasing pack of ravenous ghouls stampede through the Channel 4 studios while Mika's jolly pop tune "Love Today" blasts over the soundtrack as the blood spray hits the monitors.

The finale is utterly depressing and the final images stay with you for a long time (despite the "subtle as a fist" message). Once you see what the Live Feed is looking at it catches in your throat and WILL haunt you.

The only black marks are the prolonged scene with Patrick and Pippa in the Green Room (the bucket scenes were removed in fan edit DVD Dead Set Serious) and those two stupid cops. I can tell you now as a former UK police officer that these two are as far from modern bobbies as you can get (the racism is delivered as if it's second nature and modern cops are NOT allowed to behave like that, you can be dismissed in the modern force for ONE comment out of turn, regardless of whether anyone is offended at the time or not). As firearms cops they are a joke and considering it's so dangerous to be outside these two are a mistimed and ill conceived attempt at light relief.

My DVD didn't have the "Pippa and her mother"scene so I would like to know if this was good. It was apparently cut to give Space's reaction to seeing her more emotional impact.

Just to put the icing on the cake it has Ray Winstone's daughter in it who's almost as badass as her dad.

Scary, downbeat and fun.

Dead Set is a well-polished zombie production (particularly considering the limitations of it being an E4 TV series rather than a film) that rises above the zombie norm thanks to writer Charlie Brooker's wickedly satirical swipe at reality TV culture. What makes this work so well is just how easily and neatly the concepts of zombie horror and reality TV are married together. There's the stock characters, the pleasure/horror of voyeurism, the sly commentary on the idiocy of the general public...

However, whilst the series shows a great deal of knowledge of its obvious forebears, this sometimes means it comes across as highly derivative, particularly of Dawn of the Dead and 28 Days Later. Still, such is the cost of wanting to pay knowing homage to your predecessors, it seems.

As for DVD extras, the series includes about a dozen featurettes of varying quality. Some are semi-interesting interviews but a few are just compilations of behind-the-scenes footage that don't really communicate much of any value.

I'd be tempted to give the overall package four out of five, but I'm docking an entire star for the annoying decision to not include the feature length edit of the series that was shown on TV on Halloween. It seems a bit of an oversight to not allow people watching the DVD the chance to view the series as a 2-hour film. A "play all" option is available, but this means you're treated to the credits every half hour instead of a seamless product. This really is an irritating oversight.

This is a review for "Dead Set" the episodes, NOT the DVD (and associated extra features) as it has not been released at the time of writing.

Dead Set is a very respectable zombie horror. It is a classic tale of a small group of isolated survivors in the face of a zombie apocalypse. Whilst this is horror/drama it does not suffer from the common affliction of taking itself too seriously. There's plenty of black humour and lighter moments as a counterpoint to the scares and gore.

The scenario borrows from Dawn of the Dead, with the survivors holed up in a secure compound (once they've dealt with the immediate threats). The twist is that the compound is the Big Brother house and the contestants are initially unaware that anything is wrong with the world outside. By the time they find out it is too late to do anything but sit tight!

Another thing this has in common with the DotD remake is that the zombies in this are "new skool" running zombies (of the type first seen in 28 Days Later). This may upset some purists who insist that all zombies should be shamblers but fits perfectly with a modern day, fast paced scenario. The speed with which the infection spreads is frightening and the undead are like a pack of ravenous animals. With shuffling zombies it's usually sheer weight of numbers that overwhelm the heroes but with the visceral, panting, lightning fast beasts they are unnerving and dangerous individually and terrifyingly deadly in a group.

Like all good zombie horrors, once the immediate danger of the undead is kept at bay, the danger then comes from internal conflict. With most of the survivors having already spent the best part of 2 months in each others' company tempers fray pretty quickly, leading to fatal consequences. Because this is the BB house the characters are mostly obnoxious, obscenely thick, gratingly annoying, utterly weird or infuriatingly arrogant (or a combination of several of those!). There is the risk that with such potentially dislikeable people as our survivors that we don't positively look forward to seeing them torn apart! However, the groups' humanity is kept intact by a few "normal" people and enough redeeming characteristics in the group as a whole to make us care about them.

The acting is mostly convincing (although a couple of characters are deliberately OTT) and whilst there are a few moments that are unintentionally funny, most of it is believable (well... as much as a zombie apocalypse is believable anyway!).

All in, this is a reputable stab at the horror genre by Charlie Brooker. There are some genuinely scary moments, a lot of tension and welcome comic relief. The prosthetics and make-up are all very convincing and gives the impression of it being much higher budget than it really is. I was going to give this 4 stars but genuinely couldn't find a reason not to give it that extra one. If you like zombies or horror then you shouldn't be disappointed.