Zone of the Dead

Directed by Milan Konjovic' and Milan Todorovic'

Starring Ken Foree,Kristina Klebe, Emilio Roso,Miodrag Krstovic,Vukota Brajovic,Steve Agnew

In the last year or so there has been a splurgence of films making their way here from Serbia. Some of these films have caused controversy at film festivals and screenings, one film in particular A Serbian Film may even become banned in certain countries. It's real to life violence and horror representing the atrocities that have taken place in their country since the breakdown of Yugoslavia. Zone of the Dead is not one of these films, although it has been financed and supported by the Republic of Serbia, it has it's own atrocities to deal with such as bad dubbing, terrible translation and some mediocre acting.

The film's opening scene starts with a police detective and a coroner investigating four skeletal remains at a construction site and are only partial decomposed after 300 years. The bodies are covered with Lyme indicating they have died from the plague. A worker has cut himself on one of the skeleton's bones and has since died. The worker rises from the dead attacks the pair . The opening scene does nothing to advance the plot, we never see these characters again.

At a train station, we have an old man trying to phone his wife after he has missed his train, a station manager and a skinny ass kid of a police officer, or peace keeper I'm not quite sure. Enter three obnoxious assholes wearing military garb, NATO is performing military exercises throughout the country. The three soldiers are harassing the young officer, removing his gun from it's holster, a struggle per sues and the handgun accidentally fires into a tankard full of Toxic chemical from a train that arrived just moments before. A greenish colour gas escapes. I hate to be a nit picker, BUT I find it hard to believe that a tankard carrying such a dangerous chemical could be released with a single bullet from a handgun. Wouldn't you think the tankard containing the Toxic gas be reinforced with a metal of superior strength. Yeah I know sometimes we have to suspend our dis beliefs and not think about gaping plot holes, but I really don't like it when writers take advantage of their audiences. These characters all perish to the Toxic gas except for the old man who has managed to don a gas mask located in the station house.

We are introduced To Reyes ( Foree ), I'm guessing from the boxes packed in his small apartment, the picture of the pretty blond and Reyes popping pills and drinking vodka that we are supposed to feel sympathy for him. How can we , we don't even know this person or given a chance to feel connected to him or any of the other characters in the film. Now working with INTERPOL his partner Dragan ( Krstovic ) pulls him away from his apartment for one more mission.

It's Agent Mina Milius (Klebe) first field assignment, along with Reyes, Dragan and three other agents to escort a prisoner to Belgrade where the prisoner will then fly to London. On route the armoured vehicle transporting the prisoner and the truck with the agents run into trouble in the region of Pancevo, where the deadly gas has escaped from the tankard. The surviving agents must now form a truce with the prisoner if they are to survive the growing horde of the undead. Making their way to an abandoned police station, which also quickly becomes surrounded by the zombies. Is this a homage to John Carpenter's Assault on precinct 13 ?

The zombie make up effects by Miroslav Lakobrija look impressive enough I think, sometimes it is really too difficult to tell with most scenes being under lit and the use of jump editing during attacks giving the picture that jerky look which I find has been done to death in the zombie genre. My favorite zombie has to be the well endowed woman wearing nothing but an untied bath robe and a towel in her hair.

As all of this is going on, a young man having been locked up in a church and now free has been anticipating this moment all of his life and is prepared for Armageddon. He has enough weapons for a small army, and he is going to use them.

Along with the wooden and stilted acting, the dubbing is off target and I'm hoping for the sake of the screen play writer that the dialogue has been lost in translation because most of it is ambiguous and an incoherent mess.

In another homage, this time to George Romero's Dawn of the Dead, the survivors are debating where to go next, someone suggests a shopping mall. Foree's character replies " it would be too hard to secure, and believe me , they would get in anyway. Ken Foree portrayed Peter in the original 1978 version, a trooper whom with a small group tried to make a shopping mall their sanctuary.

My Thoughts: Watch Night of the Living dead again.

My Rating: 2 Go Go Girls out of 5