Three stars.
Originally published on Monday, October 6th 2014.
Okay, despite the flaws in character development and story line, this is perhaps the best zombie flick I have seen in many years. Many of the zombies in this films were inspired by Fulci, which gave a menacing quality from their slow moving advance. This film uses all practical effects, going as far using amputees to pull off some of the cooler effects.
What also makes this story fascinating is the location and simplicity. Our protagonists, Lt. Murphy (Freeman) and local soldier Daniel (Oseia) are lumped together out of necessity in some unnamed West African country. With the area suffering from outbreak and rampant zombies, the two form a bond to stay alive. Murphy is an US Airforce engineer whose plane crashed on the coast. Daniel returned to his village to find his wife dead, but discovers from a wounded survivor that his son was rescued and take to a base farther north. The men team up, with Murphy agreeing to help rig electronic devices and vehicles to find Daniel's son. In exchange, Daniel helps him to find shelter and a possible way out of the predicament. The West African landscape gives a fresh and intriguing feel to a zombie story, one that's usually reserved for redneck backwoods and major cities congested to the point of having no survivors.
Throughout, this film remains pretty well action packed. Be advised, this movie has a nihlistic, somewhat ambiguous ending. I'll be able to expand on this further after I view The Dead 2, which is just about to be released.
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