THE DEAD TIMES

RATING:

ZOMBIE RATING:

DESCRIPTION:

Two cops, responding to a disturbance at a homeless shelter, become lost in a maze of twists, turns and tight spaces. As they desperately hunt for a way out, they are set upon by flesh-hungry Zombies. Where did these Zombies come from, are they contained and, if they are, what devastating effect will the have on the surrounding city if they escape?

MY VERDICT:

Live Escape is an odd movie; it's clearly low-budget and while trying its hardest to make you believe it is something it is not, I do find the film quite an enjoyable watch which is only really letdown by two major points - the runtime and the repetitive set design. To get the negatives out of the way first, the movie is far too long; the lose story of people entering a homeless shelter and, eventually, finding that the CDC was performing experiments on the people living there and, somehow, accidentally turned them into Zombies while attempting to find cures to other diseases and, somehow, those Zombies breaking out of containment, is just too thin for a one and a half hour movie. When it comes to set design, pretty much the entire movie takes place in the "homeless shelter"; it is really, inescapably clear that it is just a scare attraction available to the public with clear wooden walls and 'cover' points, bright red exit signs (that really should have been taped over) and fire extinguishers dotted about. At one point, I thought this was all deliberate and the movie would end revealing that it was all one big prank played on new police force recruits (something that may have improved the movie) but, sadly, the film desperately tries to convince you that it is 'real'. What I did really find entertaining about the movie though was the amount of eerie tension it sets up at the start, especially when the cops are moving through the seemingly empty homeless shelter, hearing strange sounds and occasionally catching glimpses of movement in the shadows. Also, there is a welcomely large number of Zombies in this for such a meagre budget movie. Their make-up is not great, they are clearly scare actors wearing over-the-counter fake blood, but the acting is suitably Zombie-like and convincingly undead.