Follow The Dead, 2020

In the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day and March being ‘Irish-American Heritage month,’ we go to Ireland for this movie’s write-up!

In a small rural village in Offaly, Ireland, locals are hearing reports and seeing viral videos of attacks and instances of violence coming out of Dublin, the nation’s capital. As local authorities attempt to reach Dublin and recieve no response from their inquiries, suspicions and unease begin to escalate.

We meet Robbie. A mild-mannered 30-something year-old plodder who left his police officer wife in Dublin to take care of his family. His family currently consists of his Internet-influencer wannabe sister, Liv, and two layabout, wisecracking cousins, Chi and Jay. The four millenials share a house together.

With tensions rising regarding the news, (or lack thereof,) from the city, a community meeting is held to decide on a course of action. Unfortunately, no one is sure what is happening and speculations include terrorists and/or a cultural revolution, (and, well, a zombie outbreak, although this seems the least considered possibility.) 

The residents are divided. The village leaders are asking for cooperation with the gardai, (Irish police force,) in preparation for what may come, But others, dissatisfied by the economy and their own standings, are hopeful that this is the revolution they’ve been awaiting. These ones call to stand alone… together.

Divisions intensify. The opposing idealogical factions clash, threats of violence and infighting incidents increase in frequency, and eveyone is too busy to notice that actual zombies have arrived.

The setting and dynamics of the living takes up the entire first 2/3s of the film, with zombies appearing, (not counting those viral videos,)  not until the final act. This can make some feel that the movie is slow paced, but the building of tension works well and how people react to said invisible perceived threats plays a large role in the movie.

Once the dead finally do show up, they seem to adhere to the ‘Rules of Romero’ fairly strictly. Shambolic, flesheaters that need head trauma to stop them. Although no attention was called to the transmission of the virus, trasmission did occur somehow. My biggest complaint about the undead is the relative scarcity of them. An increased Zs screen time would not have gone amiss. 

The living characters are interesting and well-developed with enough humorous elements to have ‘Follow The Dead’ misclassified as a ZomCom, (‘zombie comedy’ for those outside the know.) In truth, the humor is just the funny/witty banter and reactions found in family group dynamics like this. There isn’t any silly wackiness about the situation itself, just responses from certain characters.

Overall, there isn’t anything too original here, just an outbreak and the fear and paranoia it brings. That paranoia and the divisions it causes does create a secondary, internal threat that distracts from the undead.

Acting is decent, pacing is good, (aside from the the long, slow build-up,) and film quality and special effects are on par with any. In short, I enjoyed this. But as per usual, I held it up to my Zombie Movie Rubric to give it a grade outside of my bias, and Follow The Dead earned itself a 2.5 out of a possible 4.0. The gives it a recommendation, not just as a zombie movie, but a nice nod to Ol’ Saint Patrick himself.

And of course, YouTube has a trailer to persuade or dissuade you you one way or another! Here ☞ FOLLOW THE DEAD.

Dead Meat, (2005)

       

     One fine evening, I found myself in the mood for a nice low-budget zombie movie from the ol’ Emerald Isle. Dead Meat, (the DVD case reads “Fangoria’s Gorezone - Dead Meat”,) turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. 

      So, after an accident on a very lonely road in rural Leitrim, Ireland, a pair of visiting tourists, Helena and Martin, attempt to move the body of the man they hit with their car to a nearby cottage for help. Things go from bad to worse and soon, Helena is alone in a foreign land surrounded by the undead, and the even more foreign living.

      What plays out is your standard outbreak scenario: Run, find a stronghold, make a stand. Nothing wildly different or original there. But it is the casts of locals that make this film stand out. Helena meets up with the local gravedigger, Desmond, who despite her lack of interest in the matter, attempts to tell the histories of places as the are chased through them. And then there is Coach Cathal Cheunt, a crotchety, and foul-mouthed hurling enthusiast and his equally untrusting missus, (and living dead look-alike,) Francie.  They make their way across the Irish countryside as night falls, hoping to get out of the infected area fending off attacks by both undead humans and livestock.

      Oh yes. That is how this particular outbreak began: A virulent strain of Mad Cow disease that had cattle attacking humans, thereby spreading the infection.

       And zombie cows aren’t the only departure from your typical Romero-esque ghouls, either. Dead Meat also sees the deceased using weapons to kill, (but only if readily available, a pickaxe, assorted blunt objects, nothing too sophisticated.)

      A sleeping state is seen, too, where the dead are in a type of dormant rest, though not for too long, standing and eyes rolled back. Creepy to navigate through in the darkness of night.  And dispatching the infected is no longer limited to damaging the brain, (though that still seems the most effective way.) A variety of stabbings, hackings and sports-related injuries can put them at rest as well. This must have been born of the desire to showcase unique splattering exterminations.

       Other hallmarks of traditional Zombism still apply: Attack and feast on the living, infection through bites, and slow, shambolic movements. These all combine to make the dead in Dead Meat a nice, slowly overwhelming menace, despite some bad make-up. I mean, some really terrible zombie make-up. The movie has some really decent effects in zombie kills and gore/wounds, so surely some better facial work could have been done!

      After all is said and killed, however, I enjoyed this movie a lot. No, there is no cinematic history being made, not even a real departure from run-of-the-mill zombie movies, but the characters are interesting and likable, the story, minimal as it was, was a nice, linear arc with a straight ahead goal and no attempts at surprise twists. The zombies, despite the aforementioned crap make-up, were a creepy threat and conveyed that sense of danger. 

       If you are looking for a Living Dead movie, yet another story of how a zombie outbreak would play out and you’d like to see it with quirky Irish flavor to it, you should definitely check out Dead Meat.

       On the ZMR scoring rubric, Dead Meat earned itself a 2.66 out of a possible 4.0 points, (buoyed on the strength of its characters and some nice smooth pacing,) but I personally enjoyed it more that that number reflects.

       One serious caveat, though. Definitely watch this with the subtitles on. Although these folks are technically speaking the English language, the deep rural Irish accent makes many of the lightening-fast comments and assorted expletives barely recognizable. And a lot of the charm I found in this movie was due to these off-the-cuff comments and under the breath lines.

This YouTube trailer simply doesn’t do it justice. 

      DEAD MEAT