The Ford Brothers may come from the Werner Herzog School of film-making. They didn’t want to just make a zombie film. They wanted to make a zombie film and place it in some of the most inhospitable locales in the world then see what happens: hoping the arduous and inhospitable drama of the production itself gives birth to something unique on screen. So they searched Africa and ended up in Bukina Faso. Where? Exactly.
The Dead could easily be the best-looking film ever made about the cannibalistic hordes. Ever seen a shuffling, silhouetted corpse walking towards a burning red sunset before? It looks eerie. And modern day zombies can leave their running shoes at home because it’s strictly old school walking, moaning and groaning on display (another bonus for purists).
As the director Howard J Ford told me, this production almost killed him… and his brother… and the cast… and crew. In a country rife with corrupt and all sorts of misery, people got paid whether they worked on the film or not. So was The Dead worth the hassle, effort and skirting with death?
While a good, solid piece of zombie apocalypse fun and given a nice road movie narrative, it does tend to fumble on the emotional elements. Not only interested in zombies and survival horror it wants a human drama to unfold between two very different men finding common ground. Only it doesn’t quite work due to the lack of strength and conviction from the actors.
There are times when The Dead wears its b-movie horror heart on its sleeve, coming across like a schlocky 1980s flick which could have been made by Antonio Margheriti. Other times it pays homage to a host of influences from Dawn of the Dead to Lawrence of Arabia to the war photography of Kevin Carter.
This soup of influences and flavour – plus the superb locations – make it a gripping and often, very creepy, experience. The night time scenes hold a highly palpable danger and menace. You’d think people would be safe in the middle of nowhere, but no… the dead rise from their village and go roaming. Even when a character sleeps high up in a tree there’s the sense he’ll wake up in the morning to find an entire horde of zomboids clawing at the bark.
Fittingly for a horror film the gore quota is often high with some delicious special effects including a soldier having his head run over and a zombie having his mashed in by a fire extinguisher. Nice!
The Fords have made a worthy entry into the zombie canon offering something old, something new, something borrowed and something, well, lots of recently blue dead people walking around and feasting on the flesh of the living!
Rating: ?????
US Release: tbc
UK Release: tbc (world premiere 30th August at FrightFest)
Australia Release: tbc