The Dead Has Hungry Zombies, in Africa
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The Dead is nothing particularly special, except for the setting, but zombie addicts will appreciate the tried and true storyline and predictable outcomes.
Written by John Strand, aka Duke of Terror
January 9, 2011
Release: October 1, 2011
Written and Directed by: Howard J. Ford and Jonathan Ford
Starring:
Rob Freeman as Captain Brian Murphy
Prince David Oseia as Sgt. Daniel Dembele
Fans of the zombie subgenre will be happy that director, Howard Ford, has unearthed the living dead in some place other than North America: Africa. The setting is unique, but that’s where the creativity stops. This is a retelling of the same zombie story you’ve seen many times. It includes some interesting cinematography, decent (though brief) gore and mediocre acting.
The Dead opens with Captain Murphy (Rob Freeman) carrying an AK 47 and crossing a desert in Bedouin drab. A zombie with a broken leg slowly closes. Murphy avoids him and shoots a more able zombie in the head. The action flips to a small group of Americans on the last plane out of the unnamed African country* days earlier. After a scuffle with a recently deceased passenger, the plane goes down in the Atlantic Ocean. Most perish in the crash, but a few wash ashore, including Murphy. Though zombies greet them, Murphy manages to shoot enough to escape inland where he finds a disabled pick-up. The story transforms into his attempt to make it to an airfield hundreds of miles inland, and with the help of Sergeant Daniel Dembele, and African Native he meets along the way, he attempts to overcome many difficulties and survive the zombie outbreak.
A predictable storyline can be forgiven by a horror fan as long as there are some decent scares and gore along the way. The Dead has a couple scares, but they fail to grab the audience, due to the Ford’s stilted obedience to convention. There is some intense gore in the first twenty minutes, but not much after. A horror film novice would be sickened, but anyone versed in the genre would not have much patience after about an hour.
On the plus side, the The Dead’s cinematography is atypical. Ford employs boot close-ups when Murphy and Dembele are moving and facial close-ups when they are still. Combined with actions, these close-ups are his attempt to make the audience feel the fatigue and frustration of Murphy and Dembele – and at times this succeeds.
Like most zombie movies, the tone throughout is hope in the midst of despair. There is a hint of subtext about the tension between African natives and white people who abandoned them, but no heavy-handed moral message. The sight of many sickly and hungry Africans is less shocking than zombie films set in more developed countries, suggesting a possible social commentary, but it is vague at best. The unnamed country’s military also conforms to stereotypes typified in films such as Congo, Hotel Rwanda and Blood Diamond, except that the audience does not feel pity for the victims of their shootings, since they are already dead.
Lovers of zombie apocalypse movies will be somewhat entertained by The Dead, but shouldn’t lose any sleep if they miss this one.
* At one point we see Burkina Faso’s flag on military jeeps, but this makes no sense, given that Burkina Faso doesn’t have a coastline.
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