Zombie Undead

Introduction

It would appear that Zombie films have gone through a bit of a rennaisance in the last decade or so, with the re-emergence of Romero and the landmark smash hit that was rom-zom-com Shaun of the Dead. Even TV has gotten in on the act with C4's excellent Dead Set and now HBO's even better adaptation of comic book The Walking Dead. And now, here's another UK entry into the annals of walking dead celluloid.

There's a big explosion in an unnamed city and survivor Sarah (Ruth King) and medic Steve (Barry Thomas) are rushing to a hospital outside said city with her father, who is bleeding quite badly from his injuries. A shock awaits them as many more casualties are already there with the medical staff overwhelmed and reduced to treating patients on corridor floors. Sarah manages to faint when a doctor attempts to inject adrenaline into her father and wakes up in a room sometime later, only to find the hospital seemingly deserted.

It's not deserted though. The labyrinthine hospital building is gradually being overrun by zombies, attacking anyone still living and eating them for dinner or tea, depending on what time it is - it's hard to tell. Sarah bumps into Jay (writer Kris Tearse) who has killed a a couple of zombies already and therefore a veteran of the zombie outbreak, who is looking for his younger brother. Oddly enough, Sarah wants to find her father and so the two decide to team up, once the near hysterical Sarah calms down just a little bit. Exploring the hospital, the duo not only meet up again with Steve but also another small group, and after much debate, they all decide to work together to find each others relatives and then get out of the hospital.

It doesn't take too long, however, before the party find their numbers being slowly depleted...

Picture

There's something not quite right with the picture on this film. The opening sequence (after the bomb setting) is quite nauseating, with rapid camera moves and strange angles. This settles itself down but then you get odd zooms now and again, as if the shots hadn't been framed in advance and was being done on the fly.

Overall

Why is it that inhabitants of zombie films know nothing about zombies? Hasn't everyone seen Shaun of the Dead by now? I guess I'm being picky but it's also annoying me a little. Not as much as the whole premise of this film though, in that a piddly bomb in a small bag not only causes so many casualties that a City's medical services can't cope, but also that said bomb also turns everyone into zombies. That is quite a new one, so at least one mark for originality there.

The out-of-town shoot is mainly down to the fact, I assume, that it was filmed almost entirely at the University De Montfort in Leicester. I'm also guessing that this may well be or have started as someone's student film, not only from the location but also the standard of the dialogue and the acting. some of the latter being particularly terrible. The script isn't much better in places, with banal hysterical dialogue the order of the day - so much so that I was really hoping that main character Sarah would be the first to fall prey to the zombies at at given point in the film, anything to shut her up really.

OK, I'm being more than a little harsh on this and to tell you the truth, it's not that bad a film I guess. It's just not original in any way (other than the macguffin that turns everyone into a zombie) and it's been done much, much better in many more places. God, even Charlie Brooker made a good fist of the genre and he ever does is whinge about everything. Too much dialogue, too much wandering around corridors and nowhere near enough action for fans of the genre. Can't really add anything else to that other than loads of blood and I guess the SFX aren't too bad. Oh, and there's a nice ending shot over the end credits where an Army patrol gets owned by a seven year old girl zombie - ok I might be exaggerating there, she could be eight...

Overall I guess I'm just indifferent to this film...