Movie Review: The Dead (2011, Blu-ray)

About six months ago, I had the privilege of watching one of the best vampire films ever created, Jim Mickle's Stake Land. Stake Land was a fresh take a sub-genre that had been littered with sparkly crap that did nothing to help the vampire as a symbol of true horror. The zombie sub-genre hasn't gone unscathed either, thankfully, much like the Stake Land, the Ford brothers' have taken this repetitious rotting carcass and pumped some life with their recent film The Dead.

After crashing in the ocean, a group of soldiers float their way to a seemingly peaceful beach of the coast of Africa. This beach proves to be very hostile to the military men as a horde of slow-moving but ferocious zombies wait to nosh on their injured limbs. Lt. Brian Murphy (Rob Freeman) decides not be chow for the flesheaters and makes his way past the creatures and taking every effort to survive.



The cool thing about The Dead is that your titular character is pretty much alone the whole duration of the film - he's on his own so you in a sense are his tag-along. Without really any form of help - aside from a few people Murphy comes across - he has no room for error. The limited, yet extremely effective cast also includes a nice turn by African-born actor, Prince David Oseia as Sgt. Daniel Dembele.

The Ford brothers do a splendid job of capturing a the absolute desolation that the characters have to navigate through. Sorry kids, no shopping malls to fart around in or mini-marts to raid, this is an Africa that's even more dangerous with ghouls at nearly every turn.

Anchor Bay's done a fine job on the overall presentation of The Dead on Blu-ray. Also include in the package are a few extra features - Unearthing The Dead, a behind the scenes featurette of The Dead, a deleted scene and a solid audio commentary with Writer/Producer/Director Howard J Ford and Writer/Director of Photography/Co-Director Jon Ford.

The Dead is a first-class production all the way that should not be missed by anyone looking for a original and exciting spin on the zombie subgenre.