“The Dead” is set in war-torn Africa, where a zombie outbreak has taken over the whole country. The last evacuation plane is set to leave the country when it encounters problems and crashes on the western coast of Africa. The sole survivor is Lt. Brian Murphy (Rob Freeman), who is also a military plane engineer. He crosses paths with Sgt. Daniel Dembele (Prince David Osei), who has just left his military duties to find his village torn to pieces by the zombies, but finds out his son managed to escape to a military base up north. Brian wants a plane to leave the country to go back home to his family while Daniel wants to reunite with his son. They both choose to work together to survive against the zombies and attempt to achieve their goals.

The visuals and background music for the movie were very well done. The picture quality was very sharp and the scenic shots of Africa were amazing. The camera angles were nicely varied and they did a good job of showing how vast the land actually was and the natural obstacles Brian and Daniel were going to have to deal with. For a movie I have never heard of, I was also impressed with the special effects and the makeup on the zombies and how graphic everything was in the movie. The music was very fitting for the whole mood of the film and it added a lot more suspense for each scene. The directors put a lot of thought into the small details of the movie and made it an enjoyable zombie movie for any horror fan.

The only minor gripes I did find with “The Dead” were the zombie reactions, lack of extras, and lack of dialogue. The zombies were great, but when they bit into a person, it seemed effortless for both the zombie and the person being eaten. With the exception of 1 or 2 scenes, the humans didn’t struggle much and the zombies always seemed to have an easy meal. Also, even though they included a behind the scenes feature and the deleted scenes, I wanted to see more extras like director commentary or more of a back story for the main characters. Lastly, for the first 20 minutes of the movie, there is only one conversation, other than the groaning of the zombies. I thought it was cool how they left a lot of things open to interpretation and allowed the actions to tell the story, but the silence ran for a bit too long. It was an interesting concept to try, but I would have liked the quiet times to be shortened.

I thought this was a very well done movie and it is definitely worth a watch for any horror movie or zombie genre fans. The story line is reminiscent of a couple of videogames, such as Resident Evil 5 and Dead Island, but the character storylines and great story telling took this movie to the next level. I recommend watching “The Dead” if you like blood, gore, zombies, and are in need of a great horror story in a different exotic setting. For those reasons, I am giving this movie a “B.”