In one of the stranger things to happen to horror films during the past decade, the lowly zombie has become one of the monsters-of-choice for independent horror films. Ignored for years as the poor cousin of much more prestigious monsters like the vampire and the werewolf, the zombie has slowly gained in stature until he now even has a television show, The Walking Dead, devoted to him. While the mad slasher (the original go-to-guy for B horror movies) went upscale in films like Seven, Saw, and The Silence of the Lambs, the zombie crept in slowly and became the poster boy for low budget horror. Unfortunately, this has also resulted in overexposure, with more than a few of these movies closely resembling their monsters: slow-moving, full of holes, and completely missing anything like a brain. Nowadays, if you want your zombie movie to stand out, there has to be something different about it.
The Dead is definitely different. Where most zombie films take place in urban settings, usually in Western countries, The Dead takes place in Africa, out in the bush and far away from any cities. This, and the fact that much of the film takes place in broad daylight, gives the film a unique feel. The unnamed country in the film is in the midst of a civil war that has only been halted due to the zombie outbreak. Our main protagonist is Lt. Brian Murphy (Rob Freeman), an American soldier who narrowly survives the crash of the last plane out. Stranded in the back country, Murphy is just trying to find a way home to his wife and child. Eventually, he finds a companion in Sgt. Daniel Dembele (Prince David Oseia), an African soldier who is trying to find his son, who may have been taken to a safe haven in the North. Together, they head across the desert, trying to make their way through the slowly growing numbers of the living dead.
Though the story at its center feels familiar, the film has a feeling that sets it apart from your typical zombie movie. The slow-moving zombies of this film are ominously silent, their whereabouts signaled only by a breaking branch or the swish of high grass. The characters have to listen carefully for their approach and the film emphasizes this with long stretches of silence that feel haunted by an unseen menace. The main characters are also men of few words and bear a passing resemblance to the professional soldiers and gunslingers who populated the work of director John Ford.
At times, the dialogue is a touch clunky and occasionally obvious, with few surprises in the story. Yet despite its shortcomings, the film manages to remain effective and interesting. An almost hallucinatory night drive along dirt roads with zombies appearing and disappearing in the cars headlights feels a bit like the nightmare world of David Lynch. And the film has a subtext that harkens back to the films of George Romero, though the directors (Howard & Jonathan Ford) prefer not to spell it out too bluntly. The perception of America as both defender and destroyer in the Third World is remarked upon in passing, but the film never becomes a political screed decrying Western imperialism. At its heart, The Dead is an old-fashioned zombie movie with more than enough brains to distinguish it from its empty-headed cousins.
Though the story at its center feels familiar, the film has a feeling that sets it apart from your typical zombie movie. The slow-moving zombies of this film are ominously silent, their whereabouts signaled only by a breaking branch or the swish of high grass. The characters have to listen carefully for their approach and the film emphasizes this with long stretches of silence that feel haunted by an unseen menace. The main characters are also men of few words and bear a passing resemblance to the professional soldiers and gunslingers who populated the work of director John Ford.
At times, the dialogue is a touch clunky and occasionally obvious, with few surprises in the story. Yet despite its shortcomings, the film manages to remain effective and interesting. An almost hallucinatory night drive along dirt roads with zombies appearing and disappearing in the cars headlights feels a bit like the nightmare world of David Lynch. And the film has a subtext that harkens back to the films of George Romero, though the directors (Howard & Jonathan Ford) prefer not to spell it out too bluntly. The perception of America as both defender and destroyer in the Third World is remarked upon in passing, but the film never becomes a political screed decrying Western imperialism. At its heart, The Dead is an old-fashioned zombie movie with more than enough brains to distinguish it from its empty-headed cousins.
I'd almost watch that.
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