The Dead is another title that kept coming up in conversations about recent zombie movies that don't suck. There are just so damned many bad ones now. So it's nice to come across one that gives you something to chew on... in the tradition of the great zombie films, this is one that you can enjoy either as a gory free-for-all or for the political/sociological themes. But why not both?
It's a pretty straight forward story (the good ones usually are). After a brief opening scene featuring a couple of zombies meandering in the desert, we are thrust into a plane where a handful of Americans are attempting to get out of Africa, as a zombie virus has spread there and things are quickly spiraling out of control. (I suppose I don't really need to tell you how these things work...) They had to leave a little bit ahead of schedule, and unfortunately, the plane was not ready to fly and crashes into the ocean. Our only survivor is Brian Murphy (Rob Freeman), an Army engineer - he manages to get some of the supplies from the plane and arms himself with a pistol. He manages to evade the zombies and get to an old beaten up truck, which he fixes and drives off - I guess he figures being in a car is better than being on foot. Eventually, he crosses paths with Daniel Dembele (Prince David Oseia), a sergeant in the local army who has abandoned his post in hopes of finding his family. Together, they navigate the harsh African landscape (I'm not sure if they ever specifically mention a country), made even more harsh by the hordes of undead.
First off, I really dug the zombies in The Dead. They are kind of the classic Romero lurkers - they just kind of shamble around quietly, and are more threatening as a group than as a single zombie. Honestly, they seem a little more easily dispatchable than usual. They've got a great look to them - they makeup isn't overly done, but it's effective. And honestly, just the fact that it's mostly African people (the vast majority of the scenes with extras were shot in Burkina Faso) donning the make-up gives the whole thing a different feel. I never really realized how white-washed the zombie genre was, but just the physical appearance of the zombies here makes for an interesting change of pace.
The overall tone of The Dead was impressive too. It's got a bleak/serious feel too it... I would kind of compare it to (the few episodes I've seen of) The Walking Dead - probably the most popular zombie property out there right now. The zombies in The Dead aren't extravagantly made up - there isn't really any faces falling off or anything like that. And when there is a significant body effect (missing limbs or whatever) - you get the feeling that it's a very real possibility that the person playing the zombie got those injuries legitimately. God knows I've read enough stories about people losing limbs to land mines... But while Walking seems to play up the zombie effects/kills as being "cool," The Dead strikes a more somber tone. The guns sound like real guns, not sexed-up action movie audio. There are a few very unsubtle moments that just would seem overly-dramatic in another setting (i.e. a woman bitten by a zombie trying to unload her baby on a non-infected person), but because the tone of The Dead is relentlessly somber it actually works.
I think some people would accuse The Dead of being a slow, boring film. I can kind of see it. There isn't the traditional reliance on chase scenes or fast-paced action - there is the occasional scare, but The Dead is the sort of film where our hero slowly chooses to just walk around a single zombie, keeping him at arms length, just sick of all of the death around him. Sometimes non-violence can be more thought-provoking, you know?
And it's certainly different than a lot of zombie films - there isn't a ton of dialogue, and there isn't a single location where our heroes are trapped and need to fight off the zombie horde. (Although you could actually argue that they are trapped in the vast openness of Africa.) And most notably (to me at least) - there is no dependence on the old "evil-people" trope - you know, they are on the run from zombies, but the shit *really* hits the fan when they run across a group of people who are the *really* bad ones. That just doesn't happen in The Dead, and it's really refreshing. In fact, it's just the opposite - two warring factions join together to fight the undead and protect their village.
There's a lot of stuff to unpack about the political/sociological themes of the film if you want to. It's kind of hard not to look critically at The Dead - as it could be considered The Other of our more westernized zombie films. (Nevermind for the time being that it was written and directed by the Ford Brothers, two Englishmen.) But there's a lot that could be said here about imperialism, race, poverty, and the abuse of power. I don't have time to get into it here; I need to get moving on my next movie (a made-for-TV movie about a killer leprechaun). And besides I don't want to sound like a total idiot. It takes precious time to make me sound not-stupid. But I would have totally tried writing a 5-7 page paper about it for my college literature class.
The Dead takes a lot of classic zombie tropes and deals with them from a different angle. That, along with the unique setting and somber tone make it a very worthwhile, if not exactly fun, watch.
I would recommend this film.
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