The Dead

In an attempt to get through a lot of the horror movies I have watched recently, I'm going to shorten these reviews.  I thought the best way to do that would be to cut out the synopsis of each one.  So I'll try to give a quick "what I liked, what I didn't like" review, and that'll be it.  So brace yourself for a series of short posts.

What I liked:
It looked fantastic.  It was set (and shot) in Africa (from what I understand, it's the first horror movie to be filmed entirely in Africa).  So it looks different from any zombie movie I have ever seen.  It's pretty creepy seeing zombies shambling through the brush.  Or appearing behind huts.  Or shuffling off in the distance in the desert.  It's a terrific setting for a zombie movie.

And the zombies look terrific.  Even if they didn't have skin hanging off their bones, they had a very distinct look to them.  It's their eyes, mainly (which brought to mind images of Sugar Hill).

What I didn't like:
Pretty much everything not listed above.  We follow two main characters: Lt. Brian Murphy (the only remaining survivor of an American military group) and Sgt. Daniel Dembele (a member of the African army).  They didn't like each other at first, but they formed an unlikely alliance to survive, and blah blah blah.  They just weren't very interesting characters.  I didn't care about them at all.  Even when Daniel kept talking about trying to get back to his son, I didn't really care about that, either.  I had no connection to the characters.  And, when I'm watching a slow-paced movie, I need some connection to the characters.  Whether I love them or hate them, I need something.  And I felt nothing for either of these guys.  And a large portion of the movie was the two of them, driving around in a crappy truck, trying to stay away from zombies.  It was like a boring road trip movie.  But with zombies.

Also, since the movie was set in Africa, I was pretty excited about seeing some animals in the movie.  With a nod to Zombi 2, would a zombie fight a lion?  I was certainly excited about the prospect.  But there were no lions, rhinos, giraffes, hippos, monkeys, cheetahs, zebras, gazelles, etc.  Honestly, I was pretty disappointed about that.

Overall, I didn't really like it.  It looked cool, but that kind of wore off after a while.
But perhaps my expectations were too high.  I heard nothing but glowing reviews for this movie, so I was expecting something amazing.  Perhaps I'll watch it again at some point and see if I feel the same way.
For now, I'll be forced to give it...

2/5