Saturday, February 18, 2012

Also....

THE DEAD, not the 1987 John Huston film but a newish zombie movie set in Africa.

One of my favorite horror films is HELL OF THE LIVING DEAD, a zombie flick set in New Guinea. It's a terrible movie, but still has stuff that works, an overall downbeat feeling of dread. Part of what works is that the zombies are out in the jungle and just seem to materialize out of the bush. THE DEAD uses this to a great advantage.

The setting works for and against the film---one of the things that really makes zombie films resonate with people is the feeling of "What if..." and seeing a world that is not unlike the viewer's own world turned upside down. The African setting causes the film to lose that...the desert and savannah seem otherworldly, as do the zombies and survivors.

Still an effective film, and I enjoy the old style effects [no CGI that I could notice.] But I would not say it's "the best movie since the original DEAD films" as some have said. But I have thought about the movie since seeing it, and that is always a good sign.

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