Coventry Following an unexplained zombie virus outbreak in Africa, people of all ethnicities and backgrounds chaotically attempt to leave the continent. Military technician Brian Murphy is on one of the last evacuation planes, but it crashes near the coast and he's the only survivor. Well, there were two more survivors but they serve as zombie breakfast before properly getting off the beach! Murphy fixes a ramshackle car and starts driving, without really knowing where to go. He meets up with native soldier Dembele who's looking for his young son that allegedly got brought to a survivors' camp in the north. They decide to stay together and thus "The Dead" somewhat becomes the zombie version of "Finding Nemo", except that all the jolly encounters are with hungry rotting corpses instead of with colorful sea creatures. Fact: there have been far too many zombie movies over the past 15-20 years, and due to the tremendous success of films like "Shaun of the Dead" and "Zombieland", the subgenre unwillingly almost turned into slapstick. Zombie movies seem like the ideal excuse for uninspired and amateurish directors to experiment with lousy digital effects, lame jokes and idiotic plot ideas. The least you can say about the Ford Brothers' contribution is that they tried to reimplement the basic foundations of an atmospheric and petrifying zombie film. In good old-fashioned George A. Romero tradition, the living dead are slow and individually weak, but their numbers increase rapidly while safety havens or defense tools are getting more and more scarce. Real zombie movies make you claustrophobic, even though the entire African continent is a setting, and - more importantly even - the living dead do not run, talk, make plans or play the honkytonk guitar! Considering this, "The Dead" is surely one of the better zombie movies of the new millennium, but unfortunately this still doesn't mean it's a very good film altogether. The zombies may be reminiscent to those introduced by George A. Romero in "Night of the Living Dead", but that's where the comparison stops already. "The Dead" is boring, the two male protagonists are anti-charismatic and they hardly exchange any conversations. The make-up effects vary from pretty good to lamentable and even the breathtaking desolate filming locations become quite monotonous after a while. The climax is 100% like you expect it to be, but I reckon it's still better than any other type of ending. Also, since this is Africa, I wondered all the (undead) animals were?

lourdesmeinhold-750-590943 I've waited for almost 5 years to see this film and I finally watched it today (my day off) and it was well worth the wait. Excellent script, superb acting and little to no CGI. Reminded me of the original George Romero zombie moves of yesteryear and I've seen every kind of zombie movie there is to see (been watching horror films for over 40 years). The story is reminiscent of Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" where a man is washed up on shore and must survive unknown land and people. Of course in this version, the protagonist must reach a save haven amidst hordes of walking dead. If you're looking for fast running zombies or those with super human strength, this isn't the movie for you. The Dead is a slow film that builds its momentum until it reaches its final nerve wracking crescendo. Enjoy!

Sophie ~ I was glad when it ended is all I can really say. The whole thing was terrible, there was no action, the zombies were rubbish and it was /so/ boring. I didn't buy a zombie movie to sit and watch two people walking and driving around the desert for hours and the ending was rubbish as well. The whole film was basically pointless. Also some of the scenes felt like they were just chucked in at the last minute to drag the film out a bit more or something. I don't know. I generally can't think what the logic behind this film could be. Don't bother watching this, it's a waste of time. Out of all the zombie movies I've seen this is by far the worst and I definitely would not recommend it.

imacarguy I'm not generally a fan of the horror genre, but I DO like zombie movies. I found the plot of this one interesting and the setting to be refreshingly different. While there are some good scenes, one of which will really pull at your heart strings, most of the movie is cliché' ridden and predictable. What to me is most annoying AND inexcusable are characters that are stupid, yet have thus far survived the zombies. I can recall at least six such instances in this movie alone. As much as I'm empathetic TOWARDS the main characters, their repeated stupidity almost makes me want to root for the zombies! See this one only if it's cheap or free and/or you want to make sure that you've seen yet another variation on the zombie theme.