The Dead [DVD]

While there has undoubtedly been a resurgence of the zombie genre in the last decade, there have been a lot of flops that threaten to end this resurgence quicker than a zombie outbreak in a built up area. One franchise that sticks out like a sore thumb is the Resident Evil series, or as I call it "an exercise in showing the director's girlfriend Milla Jovovich in as many over-the-top action shots as possible....plus zombies...at times". Films like this simply do not appeal to me, but then again maybe I'm not the target audience - which is presumably pimply teenagers who can't cope with complex plots and scenes that don't involve explosions every 30 seconds.

Fortunately, The Dead takes a slightly more subtle approach and charts the attempt at survival by two main characters as they trek through a zombie infested Africa. Much of the film focuses on the journey to an airbase - which offers hope of an escape together with the promise of reuniting one of the characters with his son. Throughout this time they must work together to battle the scattered undead as well as the harsh African environment. Realistic issues such as whether they should use the last of their water in their vehicle or as drinking water are typical of the subtle drama that features in this film. As for the zombies themselves, they are the classic "shambling" type seen most commonly in Romero movies, and they create a suitable amount of growing dread as they converge on the two men. As with most successful horror films, it doesn't need buckets of blood to be scary - just seeing a blurred group of zombies in the distance creates a constant feeling of fear and a reminder that the characters cannot risk stopping in any one place for more than a few minutes. The acting is excellent, conveying a hint of emotion without going overboard, and the plot is sound (but perhaps not hugely ambitious). In short, this is a film that goes back to what made zombie movies great in the first place and is all the better for it. Fans of the genre (and horror in general) shouldn't hesitate to purchase.

Despite having watched more zombie movies than I feel I should have, I still can't understand why they are so popular. Basically a zombie is this: shambling rotting corpses, catch people, eat them. And a zombie movie isn't much more than that, except it centres round a group of people of whom most, if not all, will either become zombies or zombie food by the end of the movie. Zombies don't have the versatility of vampires or werewolves who can range from predatory monsters to tragic romantic and sexualised (anti)heroes -see Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula for all that in one movie. Zombies, however, are pretty boring monsters and most zombie movies don't transcend my description above.

And it's all George Romero's fault. Until Night of The Living Dead, zombies never ate anyone. They (and they were mostly black) just did as they were told by their master. The only partial exception to that rule was Hammer's Plague Of Zombies which can be read as a dig at Britain's class structure.

Until George Romero who established new rules and can be directly blamed for the all the cheap and really really bad movies made by anyone who thinks he (and it is pretty much all `he's') can make a movie and end up proving they can make a really really bad one. All you need are some amateur actors, basic equipment, and a friendly butcher.

It's not as if zombies are used much as metaphors (Romero, and Plague of Zombies excepted). All most makers of zombie movies want to do is appeal to gore fans by showing as much human decay and getting as much human insides outside as possible.

Luckily The Dead is a rare exception. For a start it's set in an un-named African country which seems to consist mostly of semi-arid scrubland. Murphy, our protagonist is the sole survivor of the last flight out when the plane crashes into the sea. Managing to get to shore he begins a journey to find some kind of aircraft to use to get home. On his way he teams up with an African soldier who's searching for his son whom he believes has been taken to a place of refuge in the north. They travel, initial wariness slowly building into friendship, either on foot or in a dilapidated through sun-baked arid land littered with dismembered corpses and where the shambling, shuffling, unsleeping dead are never very far away.

This is a very powerful and well-made film. The constant threat of the dead is ever-present and there are very few scenes where the tension is lifted. The gore factor is high but it never seems gratuitous primarily because the camera never lingers. The editing is very tight as it cuts quickly away from horrific images. There a few scares but you can pretty much see them coming such as when Murphy goes into the dark basement of an abandoned building or peers into darkened huts. We never find out why this is happening though the soldier suggests that it's the earth cleansing itself, which is as good an explanation as any.

This isn't just that rare thing, a good zombie movie, it's a good movie full stop.

I don't know any technical terms about the filming process, and I usually just watch movies for entertainment value anyway...but I noticed right away that the quality of the film was more like a big screen film production than the home-movie quality some indie films seem to have...AND, no stupid camera movements like the shakes, which is also refreshing.(On a side note, the DVD extras left something to be desired with only one deleted scene & background scenes set to music - absolutely no commentary, which would have been welcomed.)

The movie starts with a guy in the African desert shooting a zombie, and most of the movie that follows explains how he ended up in the desert, until the guy's story reaches the point where he shoots the zombie. After that, it returns to present time. The guy is an American soldier stranded in West Africa after the last evacuation plane crashes in the ocean. He is joined by an African soldier who is searching for his son, after his village is overrun. I loved the comparison and contrast between these two survivors.

I thought the village outbreak was a great zombie scene, but despite the great action sequences, quite a bit of the film is the two survivors driving through the wilderness with zombies constantly appearing in the peripheral. Although, there a many intense scenes during the drive any time they have to stop for repairs, etc.

The special effects were excellent, and I was really glad to see the zombies had the same qualities of the original Romero undead. There's never an explanation of the source, but there is a great dialogue between two African soldiers that reflect on the outbreak. I had some issues with some of the behavior of the survivors (i.e. taking too many risks), but that just shows how engrossed I was in this film.

This could work as a stand-alone movie, but I'd love to see more about this outbreak, especially considering the setting. I have already been recommending this movie to my fellow zombiephiles!