THE DEAD TIMES

RATING:

ZOMBIE RATING:

DESCRIPTION:

The Rezort (the infamous location that gives this movie its title) is a safari park with a blood-curdling new twist; giraffes, tigers and elephants are replaced by brain-dead Zombies. You see, after the undead arose and created their own brand of havoc, but were ultimately defeated by the living, the business types saw only potential. Instead of simply ending the "unlives" of the remaining few horrors, they were rounded up, shipped off to an isolated and remote tropical island, corralled into a special 'hunting' zone and left to freely wander around without aim. Members of the public would then be charged for the privilege of shooting these rotting stinkers and - BOOM, the rezort was born. Many people flock to this tropical island from hell for all sorts of different reasons: payback for the Zombie's near destruction of humanity (possibly involving them devouring loved-ones), some sort of bizarre therapy, to help kill the remaining Zombies or to simply get the chance to shoot "once-people" without consequence. Whatever the reason, the result is the same; blood, violence, booze and the unnecessary expenditure of money - as it says in the film, "every apocalypse deserves an after party". However, when things go wrong and the park's security fails, the party becomes a nightmare as the "guests" must fight to survive a terrible new outbreak.

MY VERDICT:

This is a great idea for a movie; a combination of The Walking Dead and Jurassic Park. It's also quite a comical one because, straight from the outset, you know this whole Rezort concept is a timebomb, something's going to go wrong - there is a kind of a contradiction the film plays off; while you know you would never actually be stupid enough to go to a place like this, you also know you would absolutely go (c'mon, could you really refuse a chance to shoot a defenceless walking dead guy in the face with an automatic rifle!?). Really, to me, this concept is enough to carry the movie into 'must-see' status although, trying to give a more rounded review, I would place this film in the 'above average' category (but only just). There some other highlights including a plot twist at the end that does actually have some thought to it and the scheme of having two different types of Zombies; fresh ones, that can run, and aged ones, the rotten, longer-dead, who can only shuffle along. Still, each highlight is matched by a negative: the acting is decent but far from greatness, the film is slightly too short - a larger tour of the park's exhibits would have been welcome before the meltdown - and the story is sadly a basic, if enjoyable, 'run away from the Zombies' type deal. The biggest drawback comes from the Zombies themselves - they lack the make-up to really look like Zombies.