Review: Zombie Undead (2010)

Review by Disgruntled Monkey

Director: Rhys Davies

Starring: Ruth King, Kris Tearse and Barry Thomas

Writer: Kris Tearse

Sometimes a movie can be really bad and yet doesn’t seem offensive in any particular way. They don’t bring anything new to the genre they are in, yet you could imagine yourself watching this movie on a lazy Sunday afternoon while doing some chores. Zombie Undead in my mind falls into this type of category.

Right from the get go you can imagine the director getting his friends and family together to shoot this. All the actors are pretty mediocre and the dialogue does them no favours. The extras’ playing the zombies range from passable, to Shaun of the Dead levels of bad acting. At no time did I give a crap about any of the characters and was just hoping for their demise.

You’ve seen this type of movie before, a ‘zombie apocalypse’ has happened and survivors are looking for a safe haven. You’ve got your standard grouping of clichés and can see plot points coming from a mile away. Yet the movie never really presumes to be anything more than a standard zombie flick. Without this ego you can almost forgive it for its lacklustre script.

Zombie makeup is done on the cheap and most of the time you’re looking at a very basic face paint job and that’s it. The quality ranges yet again from passable to laughable. Considering that the story takes place in a hospital you would think this would allow for some creative designs, alas it’s not meant to be. Although to be fair, some of the gore effects do look convincing and when I witnessed them I did perk up.

While the filming is dodgy and has some very cheap production values I’ve got to say that some of the editing does show talent. Sure it’s not the best but in a movie that seems to aim for mediocrity, the editing is notable and should definitely be given encouragement.

Our really, really, exciting heroes. Really.

Even taking all the good with the bad, I can honestly say this is not a good movie. There’s nothing here to keep your attention and it’s not even so bad that it’s good. Still, it’s so inoffensive (well, for a zombie movie) I can see this being watched if there was nothing else on TV. I can remember as a kid watching such movies while sorting my Magic the Gathering cards.