Zombie movies come and go, but for the most part all still follow the rules set forth by George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead. Everyone tries to put their own spin on it, but when they leave this formula it either works or fails miserably. The latest to the genre is aptly titled The Dead, but will it live up to its name in a good brain eating way or making you wish you were for watching it?
The Dead follows an Air Force Lieutenant and an African Sergeant who are forced to work together across the parched, arid land, attempting to survive the zombies in the bush of Africa. First and foremost, this is a real old school zombie movie. The threat and terror is real to these characters, but the fear and panic is more about surviving the environment and concern for their families than the zombies themselves. These walkers creep along at a snail’s pace not giving off a sense of fear to need to run, but enough that you don’t want them to get ahold of you. Everyone has watched a zombie film and wondered why people run since they move so slowly and they use that here throughout the film. The main characters deal with each other and the treacherous track of their journey, but the zombies themselves seem more in the way than the real threat. They went for a pretty simplistic look of the zombies, but captured the essence of what they should be. Having the film take place in Africa, added originality to it watching them slowly wadding through the high grass and wooded areas was a bit creepy.
This isn’t a scary zombie film, but instead old schools take in a new original location. This is a well-crafted film that leads you on a journey that you really aren’t sure where it’s headed, but makes a smart decision once it arrives. If you like the zombie genre then this you should check this one out.
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