The Dead

The Dead is a low-budget but atmospheric and frequently effective zombie survival film that injects a much-needed note of gravitas into the rapidly multiplying but increasingly dreary zombie horror subgenre. Shot in Ghana and Burkina Faso by English television advertising directors/siblings Howard J. and Jonathan Ford, The Dead harks back to the ur-template for zombie pics–George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968)–for both its story and its desire to impart a message along with the plentiful bloodshed. American actor Rob Freeman is top-billed as a US military engineer in South Africa attempting to escape a virus outbreak that reanimates its victims as cannibalistic zombies; when his plane crashes, he's forced to find his way to civilization on foot, with the shuffling, blank-eyed dead hot on his heels. Freeman eventually crosses paths with a soldier (African actor Prince David Oseia) who's gone AWOL to find his missing son. What follows is a slower, more contemplative zombie picture than such hot-wired genre entries as the Dawn of the Dead remake or the Resident Evil franchise; the Ford brothers make excellent use of the alternately forbidden and beautiful African landscape, which offers a striking backdrop for images of the undead slowing but inexorably pursuing their prey. The relaxed pace also allows the Fords to inject notes of political and social concern, especially in regard to Africa's war-torn past (and present) and the ironies of a white man fighting for his life against a black majority. Such elements are presented without much subtlety, which is the downfall of The Dead; in its sincere desire to be a "serious" zombie picture, it tilts the balance away from shocks and thrills towards a heavy-handed earnestness. Where the film succeeds is in its depiction of a world gone over the precipice into apocalypse by a silent, implacable force of destruction that cares little for border issues or racial divide. Such moments should be welcome to horror fans who've had their fill of the video game carbons that have come to represent the zombie picture in the 21st century. The DVD includes commentary by the Ford brothers, who discuss the trials they endured in making The Dead, from contending with local militias to Freeman's battle with malaria; a 14-minute electronic press kit and some minor deleted scenes complete the disc. –Paul Gaita