War of the Dead (2011)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Simply Perfect

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A platoon of American and Finnish soldiers is driven deep into a Russian forest where its Captain discovers a terrifying secret.When produced in 2007, this was the most expensive film ever made in Lithuania. What does that mean? Since I do not know how many films are produced in Lithuania, and I have no idea what the budget was, it is hard to say. The budget must have been at least as much as Uwe Boll spends, though, because it looks like one of his movies.Not that this is a bad film, but it is more action than horror. So if you like movies where guys shoot at each other for 80 minutes, you might dig this. If you would rather see horror with ghosts or chainsaws, this is not going to be your cup of tea.Personally, I lost interest in it really quickly.

Don't be fooled by the title or the plot summary, both of which are typical of many low-rent sci-fi and horror vehicles that populate the genre market. War of the Dead is a surprisingly effective low-budget thriller. Though not the first film to combine Nazis and zombies, War of the Dead is perhaps the most effective. Direction is taut and rarely succumbs to camp, and a genuine sense of dread overlays the picture from beginning to end. Character development is paramount, and while the acting isn't always great it is generally competent. Special effects aren't necessarily cutting edge, but they are good enough and the zombies are effectively realized and quite threatening. Indeed, these zombies are rather unconventional examples of the species, and exhibit a certain degree of intelligence to go along with their enhanced strength and resiliency. And unlike many zombies, the ones in War of the Dead are fast and there's none of the traditional "zombie shuffle." Of course this isn't a perfect movie--the aforementioned lack of funds does make everything a little rough around the edges, and like many films of its kind the director makes the mistake of shooting many of the action scenes in the dark so that it's sometimes hard to discern just what is going on. But overall War of the Dead is a fine production, and one that genre fans would be well-advised to check out.

Yet again another staggeringly bad entry under the zombie banner. The movie has zero character development which leaves the viewer with nothing to care about. The writers should have watched predator or at least the first 15 minutes, it's a master class in how to set up the protagonists. Add to this the thinnest plot imaginable and you really are left with something you purely just stare at for 90 minutes.This means all that is left are the action sequences. I was often left wondering what the hell was going on and who was killing who. Action scenes were messily shot and in between you were given little more motive than let's drive this car over there to the next scene. The director clearly had been brushing up on his band of brothers and private Ryan as the film does mimic their look but only to a degree. The scene from Ryan where the Jewish soldier and German soldier wrestle over the knife was practically lifted wholesale and chucked in, laughable.These were not zombies, Nazi or otherwise. More like mutants.To address the "if you love zombie movies, you'll love this" or genre lovers (zombie or horror). I ask you this, why would you like or love this? It's terrible. I love zombies and horror, so much that this film irritated me. You may love zombies too but if you rate this at all you also simply like awful films too. That's fine but this particular film is a disservice to an already struggling genre. Avoid this watch Dead Snow.

I found "War of the Dead" by sheer coincidence. I had never heard about it prior to accidentally stumbling on it. And the cover of the DVD made me pick it up and give it a go, as I do enjoy zombie movies. And zombie Nazis, well it just doesn't get any better!Now, I will say that "War of the Dead" is unlike most other zombie movies that I have seen in my life. It has that whole "Band of Brother" / "Saving Private Ryan" feel to it, with the impressions that you are right there in the action with the soldiers. I liked that about the movie, because it is a cool thing. And taking place during World War II, but with zombies running around, well that is just an interesting concept. Sure it is used in other movies, such as "Outpost" and "Død Snø" ("Dead Snow") for example, but still it worked out quite well in "War of the Dead".One thing did puzzle me, and that was why Americans were there helping out the Finnish soldiers. That just didn't strike me as very plausible. But hey, it is just a fictional movie. Moving on, some of the accents throughout the movie were also a bit on the less impressive side.Effect-wise, then I found "War of the Dead" to be quite good. The movie had a heap of action with guns and explosions. But for a zombie movie, then the gore and actual mayhem caused by the zombies was a bit tame. Especially because the zombies were agile and running around, a feature in zombie movies that I am not a fan of. (Yeah, I am a Romero-zombie fan to the very core!) And also the zombies seemed to be capable of some brain activity, as they were able to do intricate fighting and blocking in brawling. And when the zombies jumped down from those tall trees, then I was ready to find something else to watch (but I didn't, I gave "War of the Dead" a fair chance). What was that all about? So now zombies climb 10-15 meters up into trees to hide and ambush those coming past? That was just too ridiculous.The feeling of the atmosphere in the movie was really one of the better things that was working to pull the movie up. Because it was a great mixture of "Band of Brothers" but mixed with the gritty places and narrow corridors that you had in the first two original "Resident Evil" games. And that worked out so well, because it really put on a brooding sense of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.I think that the people they had put in the movie in the various roles were actually doing good jobs with their roles. And it was refreshing to see a movie with no familiar faces popping up. The one who put on the most impressive and memorable performance in the movie was Samuel Vauramo (playing Kolya).As for a zombie movie, then don't expect the classical Romero type zombies in the movie, and don't except to see a lot of gore and mayhem, and don't expect to see any real decomposition in the animated corpses either. So if you put these expectations aside, then "War of the Dead" is actually a good, wholesome entertaining movie from Finnish director Marko Mäkilaakso.