The Dead

os mortos

Firstly - Wow this is a great film, I was lucky enough to see it recently at FrighFest. I am not a fan of horror films in fact I usually avoid them but I went to see The Dead as I'd heard really good things about it & I was sooo pleased I did as it's such a well made film & beautifully shot. It's not your typical zombie movie by any stretch of the imagination, it's so much better than that, it's a journey/road movie set against a fantastic African landscape. It's about the struggle for survival and the search for hope and there is plenty of gore and frights along the way. The make-up sfx are excellent. The lead actors, Rob Freeman & Prince David Oseia are great & hopefully we'll see them in more stuff soon, The Dead 2 would be cool. Everyone should go see this film & I look forward to the next Ford Brothers movie.

Some people have been writing good reviews about this movie. All I can say is they must have been watching something else entirely because I don't agree with much of what anyone had to say about this movie. One thing I do agree with is the backdrop. The African scenery is wild and beautiful which is in stark contrast to the horror theme of the film. This is perhaps what makes the movie less than it could have been though. The atmosphere doesn't meet the genre at all - the calm tranquility of the wilderness doesn't put you on edge like a horror movie should and the repeated "Sudden" attacks that break up this calmness are less than exciting. Driving through the African plains reminded me of an episode of Top Gear which was nostalgic but I don't think the intention of this movie was to make people smile. The film makers ignored logic completely - the pair arrive at an airport late in the afternoon and after failing to make radio contact with anyone they move on into the wild in the dark. The only thing the film makers did right in this movie was the filming itself. The camera work is great and is only topped by the scenery but what's good about the movie ends there. The make up is poor - I've seen Zombie Walks in my home city that put more effort into their costumes than these guys did. The Special effects were passable in some cases - the wounds and bullet hits were done well but it seemed like the Zombies had super sharp teeth in super powerful jaws as none of them struggled at all to break through peoples flesh and bones and even their clothing as well. The blood often looked comical. The acting - OMG the acting. My local theatre group has more talent than this movie provided. That Prince Osiea fellow wasn't too bad but Freeman was appalling every time and I felt the need to cringe every time he opened his mouth. The Zombies - WORST ZOMBIES EVER! Some of them were smiling! It was just ridiculous. The Zombies in Shawn of the Dead were better

Good movie!

source: The Dead

Like another reviewer said, the pacing is too slow and the plot is just too predictable. I gave this movie 45 minutes and then I decided to walk out. I recall vividly the sense of panic in "The Night of the Living Dead" and the terror of the main actors made it all believable whereas I didn't get that emotion in this movie nor was I impressed by the acting. The print that I saw looked terrible, colors were over saturated and all the wide angle scenes looked a bit blurry. Someone said it was shot on 35mm, I beg to differ, it seems like was shot on a high end video camera. The problem with video is that it just doesn't have the same expansive contrast ratio as film, so nearly each scene in "The Dead" just looked a bit too bland. Camera work was fairly good, same for the direction and make-up. In summary, the plot just wasn't interesting enough.

Firstly - Wow this is a great film, I was lucky enough to see it recently at FrighFest. I am not a fan of horror films in fact I usually avoid them but I went to see The Dead as I'd heard really good things about it & I was sooo pleased I did as it's such a well made film & beautifully shot. It's not your typical zombie movie by any stretch of the imagination, it's so much better than that, it's a journey/road movie set against a fantastic African landscape. It's about the struggle for survival and the search for hope and there is plenty of gore and frights along the way. The make-up sfx are excellent. The lead actors, Rob Freeman & Prince David Oseia are great & hopefully we'll see them in more stuff soon, The Dead 2 would be cool. Everyone should go see this film & I look forward to the next Ford Brothers movie.

I'm not a real fan of the dead films. They always seem great on the outset, but ultimately emerge into nothing. This film, well, an absolutely engrossing story line. Even with little character development at the start, you still care for the characters. It has jumps and scares, not sure I would class it as a horror, for the gore, I guess it would be. I have seen pretty much all the zombie/dead films...this is without question the best. For the movie goer that requires a constant stream of blood and guts, it may not be for you. For the movie goer that would like an actual story, with a little passion, some excellent acting, wonderful scenery and above all, a very entertaining time, then watch this film.

How did this film get made in 2010? What kind of person can watch a Euro-American walk through the "heart of darkness" of Africa and shoot black people (who are reduced to no more than beasts) in the head for almost two hours? There's no plot. There's no good reason for a white guy to be in Africa. But he's there and he's the last real, civilized man -- with his faithful sidekick, Noble Savage -- up against "herds" of animalistic zombie-Africans whose bodies he can dismember, disfigure, and destroy. What is wrong with everyone? Even the first film of the zombie genre, Night of the Living Dead, implicitly brings up race politics. And yet, somehow, every other reviewer can talk about the "visually masterful scenery" and "post-apocalyptic landscape" when this kind of ludicrous racial essentialism is being shoved down our throats in every single scene. If you liked this film, you should go to the Wikipedia article on, say, the European genocide of Africans in the Congo (search "Congo Free State") and then ask yourself how you could have been so ignorant.

I didn't expect that much from this movie. My first thoughts were: it is not even B-movie, rather C. But from the first minutes I realized that it leaves an impression of..."28 Days Later" and "The Walking Dead". It's kind of long shot, but that's what came to mind. While it is not as detailed and well played as those two, it has it's own new look on the old theme. Decent make-up, good camera work, the interesting contrast between gore images and beautiful "vues d'Afrique" savannah - all together with natural actor's work exceeds the initial shallow (to say the least) expectations. I don't think I will watch it again (well, not any time soon), but certainly I would not mind to see the next chapter. It looks like there is some space left for the Part II. PS: there is no cheap synthetic music (you all know it;)), that usually fills in the "wordless" episodes in some really boring movies. On my opinion, this sort of mindless soundtrack always serves as indicator. Sometimes I wonder if they use that sort of "music" as a warning: "it is going to be boring..." It's absence is a huge plus.