Storyline Outline
This film is a remake of the 1978 original of the same title. No one knows how and no one knows why but the dead are walking around on earth. Infected by a rapidly spreading plague the dead are walking the streets looking for their next meal . . .the flesh of the living. When the dead bite someone, instead of dieing they simply become one of the zombies walking the earth, free to infect more people. There is hope though. A young nurse, Ana, has managed to escape and is heading for one of the army bases where uninfected people are being advised to go. On her way there she meets a small group of survivors and together they seek refuge from the increasingly chaotic world in a shopping mall. The film follows their quest to stay alive, keep the ever-increasing number of zombies out of the mall and decide what to do next.

Ana Clarke – played by Sarah Polley. Ana is a nurse at the local hospital who is woken as she is attacked by her neighbours. Forced to run she joins a group of survivors and heads to the mall.

Michael – played by Jake Weber. Michael is an electronic salesman who has found the group.

Review
The film opens with a fairly innocent appearing scene where Ana is finishing work and heading home to see her partner. Shortly she falls asleep and is awoken by her partner when he finds the neighbours child standing on the landing. As he goes to see if she is ok she lunges for him and bites him on the neck. Being a nurse Ana reacts quickly trying to stop the bleeding and calling for an ambulance (after shutting the child out on the landing). The child is of course one of the zombies, as is her partner shortly. Ana hides for a short while in the bathroom before escaping through a window and heading out into the street. On getting into the street Ana is confronted with the beginning of the chaos that is to follow.

I am sad to say that the rest of the film didn’t manage to live up to my expectations. I am not sure if I am always too critical of horror films, but there have been very few that I have liked. When I watch a horror film I like to be really scared by it. I like the suspense and the horror to be maintained for a length of time rather than in short bursts. This film is more about short bursts of action and suspense rather than a truly scary film. A lot of the film seems to be spent in the mall with the characters in no real immediate danger.

Not wanting to seem too negative about this film there were some good points. Firstly the zombies are menacing to look at. They have been well done and look something like what I would expect a zombie to look like. Also. the special effects are adequate for the enhancing the film without acting as a focal point.

Finally the humour in the film was good and well placed. There was one particular stretch of the film where not a lot is happening. This is nicely broken up with a game of shoot the zombie in the head with the guy on the top of the building opposite the mall. It was the only part of the film that made me laugh. Probably a good thing in a horror film.