THE DEAD TIMES

RATING:

ZOMBIE RATING:

DESCRIPTION:

When a parasite of unknown origin infects a meat-processing plant, a novice tactical police unit are despatched to identify those infected and contain the situation. They are joined by a local camera crew. This is the footage of what the two-man camera-crew and tactical unit discovered - it has a far more worrying message than simply a local outbreak.

MY VERDICT:

At one point, a member of the tactical police responding to the meat-processing plant outbreak says something like; 'they're not Zombies, not the living dead' so I'm not entirely sure I should be reviewing this movie at all. The 'not Zombie' Zombies move and act like Zombies though, so I am happy to label it as a 'Zombie movie'. The movie is woefully bad too which, I feel, needs warning to potential viewers. For a start, the acting is terrible - there are not really any stand-out low-points or characters who are portrayed badly, it's just consistently poor; none of the actors seem very engaged with the movie at all, just saying their lines when they have to, without much effort or drama. The second thing you'll notice is just how low-budget this film is; none of the interior spaces look like you would expect and most of the exterior shots are just in some non-descript woods - the meat-processing plant is a nasty example as both the exterior and (briefly seen) interior look like a random abandoned building that the crew found in the middle of no-where and not at all like a factory or workplace. The movie does try to hide it's shockingly low-quality by introducing areas where the recovered footage from the police operation has corrupted audio or damaged visuals. However, these inclusions are so random and baffling they only serve to confuse the viewer and tarnish the film even more - the audio recording of one section is perfectly fine and then unplayable, being dubbed over by robotic-sounding 'Dalek' voices just a few seconds later for absolutely no reason. Naturally, this super-low budget also impacts the length of the film but the canny producers have managed to extend the run-time by adding, way-too many, business presentation style slides to 'explain' the background to each found-footage segment. Honestly, it's just really disappointing and makes it near impossible to take the movie seriously. There are even more negative aspects to this movie that I could go into but, the damage is done, no one needs to hear more. There is one minor positive though, I absolutely love the scene where the small tactical police unit and two-man camera crew (it is never really explained why the camera crew is brought along to the police operation) find they are surrounded by the 'not-Zombie' Zombies, distant but still threatening, slowly staggering towards them from all angles, drawn to the warmth of human flesh, a single hostile force, relentless, approaching without fear.