Friday 15 January 2010

Zombie Undead - My Review

I have just got back from the World premiere of Zombie Undead; an indie zombie flick made, and set in Leicester. Indie zombie films can be very hit and miss. For every 'Colin' there is a million 'Zombie Diaries'. The premiere was sold out to an enthusiatic audience including many of the makers, and actors from the film. It was cool but odd seeing the same people on screen that you could see in the watching crowd!

Zombie Undead starts off with a terroist attack in the City centre of Leicester, then the film fast forwards to later in the day. A young woman called Sarah arrives at a Hospital with a paramedic (Steve) and her badly injured Father. Soon after entering the Hospital she blacks out. She awakes to find everything silent, but she soon discovers that while she was sleeping the world has changed. For the worse. Soon she teams up with the rest of the Hospital survivors. They must work together to locate thier missing loved ones, and escape the zombie filled quarantined Hospital.

I was actually surprised how well made this film was. The acting while in places average is never bad like most cheap zombie films, and the film is superbly edited with really effective jump shots, speed ups, and angles. The characters are good enough, the usual stereotypes show up (eg: the unreliable selfish man) but it seems destiny that when ever there's a zombie apocalypse these same stereotypes will end up lumped in with your group like Weevils in grain. The Hospital is quite a maze, and quite confusing also with everything looking the same. It is a real relief and a (literal) breath of fresh air when that location is finally escaped from, and makes the outdoors scenes the polar opposite of the cramped, claustaphobic indoors.

The zombie makeup while not amazing is very passable, the zombies actually look like zombies, and there is plenty of blood and intestines shown which is nice. The weapon sounds all sound chunky and brutal.

The actual plot is good enough for a zombie film, no exciting twists or turns (well ok, there were a few unexpected twists!) though at times the script was a bit stilted it seemed, and were some missed oppourtunities which I guess not having a budget made unavoidable. I saw homages to Shaun of the Dead, Resident Evil (the game, not the film), and many more which was cool.

The film overall though was entertaining, humourous, professinally shot, the main characters were likeable, and it had the legend Zombie Ed in it. Well worth watching! I really hope this is released on DVD, if it is I will definatly be picking it up!

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