The Dead (2010)
Rated R for bloody zombie violence and gore
Score: 4 out of 5
Africa is a place that is changing and growing fast, such that I would not be surprised to see the next South Korea or Taiwan emerge on the continent. However, for every success story like Nigeria, Angola, South Africa, and even Ethiopia nowadays, there is a deep pocket of poverty and strife like South Sudan, Libya, or the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The popular image of Africa, formed during its troubled and tumultuous post-colonial years, is one of failing infrastructure, the collapse of governmental authority, disease outbreaks, people stabbing each other for a loaf of bread, people hacking off heads and limbs with machetes, and eccentric and brutal warlords who would do things like go into battle naked or proclaim themselves to be prophets.
In other words, roughly two-thirds of the content of your average zombie movie, minus only the zombies. Which is why it's surprising that it took so long for somebody to make a zombie movie set in Africa. Movies about the dead rising from their graves and the breakdown of society seem to overwhelmingly take place in the American and European homelands of the filmmakers. It's not like anybody was afraid of painting a stereotypical portrait of Africa; at the height of the exploitation film boom, which ran concurrently with the first big wave of zombie movies, you had shockumentaries like Africa Addio that went far beyond "unfortunate" in their depiction of the "Dark Continent" as Hell on Earth. Yet the only times when zombie movies are set outside the West, it's usually either Asian films putting their own twist on the genre, or movies about Haitian zombies, a very different sort of horror.
The Dead is different. A good old-fashioned zombie film set in West Africa and filmed on location in Ghana and Burkina Faso, this is a fairly conventional, if well-made, example of the genre once you get past its setting, but that setting lends a ton of subtext that many such films lack, especially in the interaction between its two main characters. Watching the tropes of a zombie movie play out in an African setting not only adds some commentary to the proceedings, it throws everything into a brand new context that that honestly made me look at other zombie movies in a very different light, especially those that seem to primarily be fantasies about roughing it in the wasteland and emerging as a badass who's more in touch with your "primal instincts". This is a bleak movie about two men and their bitter fight for survival, simultaneously grisly and atmospheric in its combination of creeping dread, brutal gore, and beautiful scenery.
The two protagonists are a study in contrasts. Brian Murphy, a US Air Force engineer, is the sole survivor of the last flight to evacuate Western aid workers out of zombie-ridden West Africa, which went down after being forced to take off with only a partially-filled tank as zombies stormed the airfield. Daniel Dembele, meanwhile, is a soldier for the unnamed African country (implied by the license plates and flags to be Burkina Faso) that the film takes place in, one whose village was overrun by zombies and who has gone AWOL to search for his son, who he believes was taken to a military base in the north. When the two meet up, they join forces, with Brian hoping that he can radio for rescue at the base and Daniel hoping to be reunited with his son.
From the start, Brian comes across as a guy who is barely holding it together, more prone to fits of rage and panic than the stoic Daniel. Flashbacks to his life back home show a world apart from the zombie apocalypse he now finds himself in, and even as a soldier, he was not prepared for the hardship of survival. Daniel, by contrast, has been through far more in his life. He is not completely emotionless, as shown with his heartbroken reaction to finding what was left of his wife in their village, but he has pretty clearly not come from the sort of comfortable background that Brian once lived in. When their truck overheats, Brian is the one who suggests refilling the radiator with their drinking water because they won't be able to walk the distance to the nearest watering hole; Daniel, by contrast, probably can make it with just the water in his canteen. And while Brian's goal is to get out, Daniel doesn't care either way as long as it means seeing his son alive. The two lead actors, Rob Freeman as Brian and Prince David Osei as Daniel, both do a great job selling their characters, bound by a shared threat and growing from strangers to sharing a profound respect and bond even with remarkably little dialogue (especially in the first half-hour).
The setting lends a visual beauty to the film that many low-budget indie horror films lack, as well as a raw atmosphere almost comparable to the oppressive heat of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. The brothers Jon and Howard J. Ford, who wrote and directed the film, let the visuals do most of the talking as Brian and Daniel visit and pass by abandoned huts, farms, and airfields, a remote village that's holding its own, other refugees looking for safety, and army convoys doing battle with the undead, all amidst breathtaking savanna and desert vistas. At first glance, the zombies are painfully slow shamblers, such that you almost can't take them seriously as a threat at first, but even though these guys don't sprint like in 28 Days Later, they are slowly revealed to have one key advantage over the human survivors (one that Max Brooks' Zombie Survival Guide, despite being mainly a comedic book, aptly recognized): they never have to sleep. As demonstrated in one horrifying scene, they are treated like the monster in It Follows: you can put one down, but there are always more behind them, you will run low on ammo, and once you're done swinging your machete or just trekking through the bush, you will get tired, whereas they will not stop until they eat you. The zombie horde is an ever-present enemy whose credibility as a threat is well-earned, as is the downbeat ending that, in hindsight, is foreshadowed from the opening scene but which still hits like a ton of bricks. This is not an action-packed spectacle like the Dawn of the Dead remake; while the gore is definitely there and graphic, with heads popping under truck tires, necks and limbs getting chopped with machetes, and a whole lot of headshots, the horror comes from the slow, inevitable march of death that Brian and Daniel fight to stay just one step ahead of. It can be quite slow at times, its 105-minute length felt in its pacing, but the atmosphere, which I've seen compared to a Sergio Leone western, makes the ride worth it.
And finally, we come to Africa itself. The idea of setting a zombie movie in Africa is obviously questionable at first glance, given all the stereotypes of the place that I laid out earlier, but this film practically does everything it can to avoid the most unfortunate pitfalls of pop culture depictions of the continent. The military man in charge of the village that Brian and Daniel encounter looks like he may be a villain at first, but he turns out to be somebody who's realized that tribal rivalries no longer matter in the face of the living versus the dead. The first zombie we see is a white aid worker who got infected and turns on board the plane before it crashes. There is no sense of superiority on either side in Brian and Daniel's interaction and friendship; they both rely on each other multiple times to pull through and live another day. Almost without fail, every human character we see is less interested in taking the opportunity to become ruler of his or her domain, as seen with so many villains on The Walking Dead, and more interested in the day-to-day needs of survival -- or, failing that, the survival of their loved ones. And without spoiling anything, the Navy SEALs are not coming to save anyone. Even with its grim, serious tone, this film never turns nihilistic, always remembering to treat its characters (the humans, at least; the zombies can all rot) with dignity, respect, and humanity -- something that a lot of other zombie movies can afford to learn.
The setting lends a visual beauty to the film that many low-budget indie horror films lack, as well as a raw atmosphere almost comparable to the oppressive heat of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. The brothers Jon and Howard J. Ford, who wrote and directed the film, let the visuals do most of the talking as Brian and Daniel visit and pass by abandoned huts, farms, and airfields, a remote village that's holding its own, other refugees looking for safety, and army convoys doing battle with the undead, all amidst breathtaking savanna and desert vistas. At first glance, the zombies are painfully slow shamblers, such that you almost can't take them seriously as a threat at first, but even though these guys don't sprint like in 28 Days Later, they are slowly revealed to have one key advantage over the human survivors (one that Max Brooks' Zombie Survival Guide, despite being mainly a comedic book, aptly recognized): they never have to sleep. As demonstrated in one horrifying scene, they are treated like the monster in It Follows: you can put one down, but there are always more behind them, you will run low on ammo, and once you're done swinging your machete or just trekking through the bush, you will get tired, whereas they will not stop until they eat you. The zombie horde is an ever-present enemy whose credibility as a threat is well-earned, as is the downbeat ending that, in hindsight, is foreshadowed from the opening scene but which still hits like a ton of bricks. This is not an action-packed spectacle like the Dawn of the Dead remake; while the gore is definitely there and graphic, with heads popping under truck tires, necks and limbs getting chopped with machetes, and a whole lot of headshots, the horror comes from the slow, inevitable march of death that Brian and Daniel fight to stay just one step ahead of. It can be quite slow at times, its 105-minute length felt in its pacing, but the atmosphere, which I've seen compared to a Sergio Leone western, makes the ride worth it.
And finally, we come to Africa itself. The idea of setting a zombie movie in Africa is obviously questionable at first glance, given all the stereotypes of the place that I laid out earlier, but this film practically does everything it can to avoid the most unfortunate pitfalls of pop culture depictions of the continent. The military man in charge of the village that Brian and Daniel encounter looks like he may be a villain at first, but he turns out to be somebody who's realized that tribal rivalries no longer matter in the face of the living versus the dead. The first zombie we see is a white aid worker who got infected and turns on board the plane before it crashes. There is no sense of superiority on either side in Brian and Daniel's interaction and friendship; they both rely on each other multiple times to pull through and live another day. Almost without fail, every human character we see is less interested in taking the opportunity to become ruler of his or her domain, as seen with so many villains on The Walking Dead, and more interested in the day-to-day needs of survival -- or, failing that, the survival of their loved ones. And without spoiling anything, the Navy SEALs are not coming to save anyone. Even with its grim, serious tone, this film never turns nihilistic, always remembering to treat its characters (the humans, at least; the zombies can all rot) with dignity, respect, and humanity -- something that a lot of other zombie movies can afford to learn.
The Bottom Line
A minor gem of a zombie movie that I came close to giving a 5 out of 5, and which still otherwise stands as one of the best of the decade. While its slow pace and its bleak tone won't be for everyone, I greatly enjoyed its road-movie atmosphere, beautiful scenery, and great use of its setting that doesn't veer into the trap of exploitation.
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