Rating:
15
Release Date:
22nd August 2013 (FF)
Director:
Howard J. Ford, Jonathan Ford
Cast:
Joseph Millson, Meenu Mishra, Anand Krishna Goyal
Frightfest 2013 opened on Thursday evening with Howard and John Ford’s The Dead 2: India, a sequel to their previous Africa-set zombie flick. To be honest, it wasn’t the most auspicious start to the weekend. A zombie epidemic reaches the Asian subcontinent and American engineer Nicholas (Joseph Millson) attempts to cross the country to reunite with his Indian girlfriend Ishani (Meenu Mishra), aided only by plucky orphan boy Javed (Anand Gopal). I didn’t catch The Dead, so the novelty of watching a Zombie film set anywhere other than Middle America (or Crouch End) was not lost on me.
The various locations around rural India are occasionally used rather well. Nicolas’s introductory scene is a slow pull out from extreme close up to a panoramic shot of him dangling from a wind turbine, which works really well and there several nicely implemented vistas. Much of the film takes place during the daytime, which is a pleasing exception from the accepted norm. The incidental music was also atmospheric. Unfortunately, that’s about all there is to say of note about The Dead 2. The film is the same zombie feature you’ve seen dozens of times before with nothing new brought to the table other than location. The acting is somewhat subpar and the script is nothing special. A call-back to an Indian legend at the film’s conclusion attempts to wrap things up pithily but feels half-hearted. Still, as the opening film, it seemed to ride something of a wave of goodwill but I imagine if it was shown in the middle of the day on a smaller screen, it would have made little impression on anyone.
This is a review by Jack Kirby of Nerdly.co.uk