The Dead
You know my love will not fade away
With zombies being all the rage in
horror now, writers and directors are in search of new ways to break
away from the pack and be something special. Some use more special
effects, or better makeup, or bigger stars, or viral campaigns to get
the audience's attention. What many fail to realize is that while the
blood, guts, and flesh-eating is a lot of fun and certainly
memorable, it's the story that makes a lasting impact. If you don't
have the story then nothing else really matters and you movie just
becomes another zombie film, thrown into the dollar bin at a gas
station, never to be viewed. Social commentary is also an important
aspect of zombie movies, but many zombie movies forget that. Take
away the story and the commentary, all you have is some blood and
violence. That can entertain the individual (usually one that dwells
in a basement, surrounded by Evil Dead action figures), but it does
not entertain the masses and makes for a boring watch.
The Dead is a 2010 horror movie
starring Rob Freeman (Smallville, Dark Angel) as Lt. Brian Murphy.
Murphy is an American engineer that survives the crash of the last
evacuation flight out of Africa. The continent has been overrun by
slow-moving zombies with no help in sight. Murphy finds a broken down
truck and is able to get it running before being devoured by zombies.
After a short time, the truck gets stuck in the mud. As the zombies
close in on him, Murphy is saved by an African soldier, Sgt. Daniel
Dembele (Prince David Oseia). Together, they are able to free the
truck and Daniel joins Murphy in his search for help. Daniel reveals
that he has deserted the army to search for his young son who was
rescued by soldiers. They arrive at an airport in hopes of finding a
plane, but the buildings are abandoned. The get gas and set out for a
safe haven in the desert. During the trip, the truck hits a tree,
breaking the axle. They sleep outside during the night and Daniel is
bitten by many zombies. Before dying, he asks Murphy to find his son.
Will Murphy be able to reach the safe haven and find Daniel's son and
has the zombie outbreak spread to the United States where Murphy's
wife and daughter live?
Rocks, my mortal enemy!
Before I can get to the story, I have
to address the blatant racism in The Dead. Now, I don't think the
writers or director had the intention to be racist. The movie brings
to mind the criticism that Resident Evil 5 faced when it first came
out, showing a white character shooting black characters. Most of the
movie is just scenes of Murphy, who is white, shooting zombies, who
are all black. Some may argue that they're just zombies and race
shouldn't matter, but it is too much to ignore, especially given
Africa's history of oppression enslavement by white Europeans. To
make matters worse, when Murphy kills a bunch of zombies, saving a
group of Africans, they praise him as their savior, even pouring
water into his mouth. That just doesn't sit well with me. By having a
zombie movie set in Africa, they had a chance to make some real
social commentary, but didn't even attempt to do anything of the
sort.
As for the story, it barely exists and
is extremely boring to sit through. A majority of the movie is just
Murphy and Daniel driving around the desert, getting out to fix the
truck or get supplies, be surrounded by zombies, and then driving
off. I don't think we ever learned what caused the zombies as there
is very little background given. It's not like they had to ignore
because the story was so great or the action so fast-paced. Speaking
of action, it's one of the few bright spots in the movie. There is a
decent amount of blood and some good feeding scenes. The zombies
don't have much makeup beyond some powder and contact lenses, but it
works fine. I didn't even know what the characters' names were until
about half-way through the movie. There's not much in the way of
character development and their motivations are too basic. The acting
is pretty mediocre, but it's not like they had much to work with. The
direction is weak as well, with certain scenes lingering too long or
shots far too close to the actors.
He may be dead, but his fashion sense is alive and kicking
There are certain expectations when
watching a zombie movie. Blood and gore are fun, but it should not be
the sole focus. A good zombie movie requires a thoughtful story,
strong characters, and social commentary. The Dead goes 0-for-3 as
the story is incredibly boring and weak, there is no real character
development, and the movie doesn't even scratch the surface of social
commentary. What could have been a good opportunity to explore the
issues of class and race, were completely ignored in favor of a white
soldier killing a lot of African zombies. The Dead is dissapointing
on many levels and boring to boot. It was probably called The Dead
because they couldn't come up with a creative adjective, noun, verb,
or adverb.
2/10
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