The first film in this year’s Mardi Gras of horror, Frightfest, isn’t the strongest opening the London festival has seen, but the sequel to the Ford Brothers’ successful Africa-based zombie flick, The Dead (2010), is at least a zombie movie with heart.
As the title suggests, the action is shifted to India this time around, where the shuffling undead litter the wide open plains of the countryside and occupy the bustling Mumbai slums.
When Nicholas (Millson), an American turbine engineer working on the wind farms in the Indian countryside, hears of the chaos hitting Mumbai where his lover and soon-to-be-mother of his child, Ishani, resides, he must make his way across the dangerous landscape to save her.
Setting the action in India gives the Ford Brothers’ a beautiful new canvas on which to paint their apocalyptic vision, and certainly, the scenery and photography are the film’s best assets, as well as a memorable and moody score. Indeed, the Ford Brothers are more concerned with atmosphere than they are with grandiose action set-pieces and zombies having their brains blown out, and while there is a touch of the latter, it’s the quieter moments where the Fords are at their best (the initial zombie attack on a small Indian slum provides a moody and memorable highlight).
The plot isn’t quite as unique as the film’s setting, and the road movie antics of the film’s hero (a likeable Joseph Millson) doesn’t really throw in any surprises. While it’s refreshing to see a zombie movie with heart, which also takes itself seriously, the final moments get carried away with the sentimentality and the daft attempt at profundity almost undermines the tone of the rest of the film.
Overall Verdict: A zombie movie with heart.
Reviewer: Lee Griffiths