THE DEAD TIMES

RATING:

ZOMBIE RATING:

DESCRIPTION:

Craig, no doubt like many others, had a plan for when civilization was brought to its knees as the recently dead rose from their graves: he would stock up, wait it out. However, when he gets a phone call from his friend trapped in a nearby restaurant, his plan needs to change. Somehow, this one minor diversion of his perfect survival plan leads him on a 'fight or flight' road-trip through Hell.

MY VERDICT:

PlanZ is an entertaining British Zombie movie and, honestly, one of the best Zombie films I've seen in years. The scope is fairly limited, for the most part there are only two main actors (neither of them will win any awards for their acting talent) but this just makes the film seem more believable; this is an average guy doing his best to stay alive during an impossible situation. The plot is also fairly linear; starting with a run-down of basic Zombie apocalypse survival rules, a mildly tense period during the early stages of the outbreak and then some action towards the end before finally throwing in potential for a well-deserved sequel. A particular highlight for me is the Zombies themselves; they are proper slow-moving Romero shufflers - capable of infrequent bursts of activity only when they sense nearby prey. There are also a lot of them (or, rather, clever camera work is utilised to make it seem like there are lots of them) - just how it should be. However, for all the praise I can give the team behind this movie, there are a few glaring downsides. At the very beginning, when the lead character is narrating his rules offscreen, he seems to mumble slightly - not a major issue but a tad annoying. Also, the story jumps around quite a bit. The short flashbacks are okay and are given a lighter coloured tint to avoid being mistaken for current events but, about half-way through the film, the action jumps forward a significant amount, placing the heroes in lethal danger when, a moment ago, there was not even any threat of that danger. Also, right at the end of the movie, the film just seems to stop - there is a dramatic event but calling it a suitable end point for the film is a stretch.