THE DEAD TIMES

RATING:

ZOMBIE RATING:

DESCRIPTION:

Waking up after a party in Paris, a young man finds the city overrun with Zombies.

MY VERDICT:

The Night Eats the World is a true "marmite" movie; you will either love it or you will hate it. First off, and most immediate, many people will dislike the new form of Zombies; 28 Days Later-style sprinters that make absolutely no noise - no hisses, no grunts, no moans. Also, the undead in this film just stand where they are most of the time, only responding to prey when it gets nearby, not stumbling around in a 'drunken haze' like regular Romero-inspired ghouls. However, in my book, these more novel features are really cool and a boon to the movie adding tension and upping the scare factor - a welcome break from over-used 'jump scares' that plague the Zombie movie genre. Still, this 'building of tension' and lack of in-your-face 'jump scares' are the biggest reasons why some people will hate this movie; very little actually happens. The entire film takes place in one apartment building and basically only has a single actor - the unnamed young man; there are not any truly massive hordes of Zombies, breath-taking gunplay or edge-of-your seat action sequences. The entire 'drama' is provided by the lone survivor and following his desperate (and increasingly futile) efforts to survive and live with the total isolation from any other living soul, including his gradual decline into insanity. Summed up, this movie is as close to a film adaption of, PC game, Project Zomboid as there ever will be; it requires patience and a willingness to persevere beyond tedium but, for the right person, it offers one of the most realistic Zombie apocalypse experiences out there. Still, even if you can get past the "boredom", the movie has other, minor, downsides; the acting is, while adequate, not that spectacular, there are very few standout scenes as everything is very similar to what has come before and the make-up on the Zombies is fairly poor.