Anger of the Dead, (2015)

    We open with a young mom, Alice, getting a little-too-late phone call warning her of the dangers outside, and not to leave the house. As she is struggling to understand him, her 4 year-old-daughter opens the front door and well… yeah.

    Flash forward 4 months and we find Alice and some other on-the-roaders struggling to get to a ferry heading to an island with no zombies, without getting bitten.

    Meanwhile, we are also treated to a parallel storyline of a woman, held prisoner, being ‘human-guidea-pig-style’ tested on, and, just to prove she is an innocent victim, also kept in chains, beaten, and raped.

    Flashbacks between the two storylines are quick and disjointed, often switching to storylines within the storylines, causing a kinda confusing first quarter of the film. Once things start to become familiar, one can settle in and follow the plots more easily.

    Of these plots, one is a very straight forward, “Get to de choppa” story arc. A small group, on the road to a final destination with rapidly impending deadline, battling the hurdles of running out of fuel and food, despair, and of course, zombies.

    The second storyline is not so clear. A woman being held captive for reasons unknown, helped to escape, and hunted by an unrelenting and cruel military captain who makes zombies seem a bit less threatening.

One story seems to have nothing to do with the other, and remains that way for most of the film.

    Fortunately, the acting was fairly decent. Some subtle accents implied that English was not the actors' first language, but they all pulled it off convincingly, and often, unnoticeably. 

    Unfortunately, the characters portrayed were mostly devoid of any backstory, history, or personal motivation. Aside from the over-the-top performance of the sadistic Captain Rooker, most of the characters were fairly interchangeable.

    Of zombies, we were given the fast, growling, howling, animalistic sort, (ugh.) They showed signs of anger and frustration, as well as letting out roars of rage. (See Zombie Classification Chart.)

    As to the OTHER ‘Rules of Romero,’  zombism was transmitted through bites and dying, and the dead did feast on the living, but it was not made clear if headshots were the only means of killing them, as these dead, athletic as they were, seemed to be killed fairly easily.

    And, for some reason, once dead and infected, the zombies' faces develop thick and malformed brows and cheekbones, but the rest of their bodies remain unchanged. 

    The hand-held camera effects were numerous and, although I know they were meant to convey what the characters were experiencing, very distracting for me. The shakiness during action scenes, the wobbliness when a person was drugged and unsteady, and that weird, partially obstructed viewpoint, from behind a pillar or doorframe, kind’ve made me feel like I was spying on people.

    For all my griping, this was not the worst zombie flick I’ve ever seen. So, to to be fair, I held it up to that most impartial of tools, The Zombie Movie Rubric. Based on its nine objective criteria, Anger of the Dead, buoyed by its SPFX and decent acting, yet dragged down by a deadly-slow crawl, earned itself a surprising 2.11 out of 4.0. 

    This rating translates to a nice, middle-of-the-road zombie film entry. Something to watch if you’re jonesing for some undead, but, ultimately forgettable.

    YouTube has a coupla’ trailers for you to decide if you’re interested or not. ANGER OF THE DEAD Enjoy!

Sorry about all that camera action - grab your aspirin!