Zombie Undead (2010)

Dir: Rhys Davies

A man with a back pack walks the city centre of Leicester England. Finding a secluded area he places the back pack on the ground and walks away. Some distance away he makes a phone call.

Hours later on the outskirts of the city, Steve (Barry Thomas) is behind the wheel of a speeding car. In the back are Sarah (Ruth King) and her injured father. They are racing to get the bloodied man to a hospital. Finally arriving they find the hospital overflowing with the dead and dying. The father takes another turn for the worse but luckily a doctor has a moment to spare to ram a needle filled with adrenaline into his heart. Overwhelmed by her father's condition and the chaos of the hospital, Sarah faints, smacking her head on the floor.

If you want to live, follow the man with the machete

Waking up on a cot, an unknown amount of time having past, Sarah is fine considering the untreated cut on her forehead. Venturing out into the corridor she finds it quiet and deserted, the extreme opposite of how it was when she brought her father in. Calling out, at first there is no response until she hears someone walking up behind her. Turning around to greet the man she is startled by the man attacking her and knocking her to the ground. Sarah is rescued by a tie wearing, machete wielding Jay (writer Kris Tearse). Distrustful of a stranger who just cleaved open the skull of another man using a machete, Sarah is hesitant to trust and follow Jay until he points out a few shuffling figures down the corridor headed their way. The zombie apocalypse has begun.

The dead walk

Jay is looking for his little brother Michael and Sarah wants to find her father before being willing to leave the hospital. Teaming up they search each floor of the hospital room by room and along the way encounter other survivors of the zombie peril, including Steve who has spent his time hiding in the loo. Can the group find their love ones and escape being bitten by the zombie undead? Not bloody likely.

I admire first time film makers Rhys Davies and Kris Tearse for what they were able to accomplish with next to nothing. The hospital location adds a claustrophobic feel to the film and there are a fair amount of zombies on hand to add to the tension. But the film doesn't work. I didn't care about any of the characters. If I had a zombie film check list while watching I'd have been able to tick all the boxes save running zombies. Oh look, someone has been bit, wonder when they are going to turn. Oh, someone is wandering off by themselves, what could possibly happen next. The script writing is lazy with characters uttering inanities repeatedly. The biggest blunder is a scene where the characters are in the courtyard of the hospital thinking they've found a way out but start lamenting there is no way out and that they must go back into the building and find another exit. All while standing next to a wall with big white letters stating NO PARKING; underneath which is a bike rack. If you are making your video epic and want to show the film letterboxed, don't shoot the damn thing so that everyone's head is chopped off by the black bars.

Dodgy elevator? Time for some exposition

Send this one to the morgue.

* out of ****