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The Dead 2
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Anchor Bay Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Anthony Arrigo (7th August 2015). |
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The Film
 Despite an abundance of zombie films flooding the DTV market – and occasionally theaters – every year, there is unquestionably a dearth of good entries from which to choose. One of the few shining spots in recent years was the succinctly-titled “The Dead” (2010), from Howard J. Ford and Jonathan Ford. The African set tale of a zombie outbreak – just the beginning of a worldwide pandemic – catered to the denizens of George A. Romero’s undead neighborhood. Zombies move slowly, the cast list is kept to a minimum, and the overall feeling and aesthetic harken back to a time before zombies took over the mainstream. It feels old-school. There’s only one thing holding the film back from becoming a contemporary classic of the sub-genre, and it’s a big one – the acting. While far from students-in-your-college-class terrible, the onus of quality is placed upon the shoulders of two men, more or less, one of whom is an African national that isn’t half bad; the other is the requisite White Guy, and he’s flatter than a Bolivian desert. Still, the film was clearly a success in some respects because the Ford Brothers were lured back to helm a sequel, “The Dead 2: India” (2013), that plays similarly to the first film yet is inferior due to rote plot elements and commensurately weak acting. In this tale, picking up after the zombie infection has spread across the African continent, we follow an American, Nicholas (Joseph Millson), who is an electrical engineer working on wind turbine engines in India. When word of the outbreak reaches him, he joins up with a young boy, Javed (Anand Krishna Goyal), to trek across the continent and reunite with his pregnant Indian girlfriend, Ishani (Meenu Mishra). As if a world epidemic isn’t enough for everyone to cope with, Nicholas also has to contend with the fact that his girlfriend’s father doesn’t approve of his daughter dating an American, adding a dose of contrived culture clash to a film already rife with standards. It likely stands to reason that if a viewer enjoyed “The Dead”, they should also enjoy its sequel. The Ford Brothers’ film is similar to its predecessor, while offering up just enough changes to differentiate it. Still, neither film brings much to the table in terms of innovation or novelty; by this second entry events are already beginning to feel a bit stale. The picture does deserve some props for using many practical FX and for shooting on location in India, although more screen time could have been devoted to the showing off the country. As with the first film, if there’s one area where the film is clearly deficient, it’s the characters. No one here is remotely nuanced or developed outside of being a stock player in a zombie melee. Nicholas is resolute in his quest to get to his girlfriend, and although he has to make a few tough decisions along the way he’s operating as an absolute with apparently no other concerns in life. Much worse is his girlfriend and her family. You would think that when a major crisis breaks out, the last conversation people would be having is the old-hat dialogue about a Western man dating an Indian girl, but then there it is. Compounding matters is the fact Ishani is pregnant, something she hides from her father. These family matters are obviously intended to add an additional layer of strife to a simplistic plot, but in the grand scheme of things the whole angle feels trivial and flat.
Video
“The Dead 2” shambles onto Blu-ray with a 1.85:1 1080p 24/fps AVC MPEG-4 encoded picture that is far from dazzling, though also far from horrid. Contrast is rather weak, especially during nighttime scenes. Colors appear overly saturated, though this does allow for many of the ethnic patterns seen throughout to “pop” on screen. There’s a general softness to the image, with definition maxing out only in close-up shots. It all looks a bit hot and overblown - although so did “The Dead” which would lead to the obvious conclusion that this is how the Ford Brothers want their films to look.
Audio
Anchor Bay/Starz’s standard Dolby True HD 5.1 surround sound track (48kHz/24-bit) carries the audio here. It’s actually a fairly active mix – when it wants to be – featuring a solid low-end response and gun fire that alternates between present and barely there. Dialogue is presented cleanly. The film’s score fits the locale well, with lots of indigenous instrumentation at play. Subtitles are included in English for the hearing impaired and Spanish.
Extras
All that’s included here is a making-of featurette, some deleted scenes and bonus trailers. “The Making of “The Dead 2”” (1080p) featurette runs for 29 minutes and 12 seconds, hosted by Billy Chainsaw (I don’t know who he is either), this piece covers the location shooting, shows off some b-roll and talks about changes made to the script. A reel of deleted scenes (1080p) runs for 2 minutes and 21 seconds. Bonus trailers (1080p) are included for: - “The Dead” runs for 2 minutes and 18 seconds. - “Battle of the Damned” runs for 1 minute and 29 seconds.
Packaging
The single disc comes housed in a standard Blu-ray eco keep case.
Overall
Simply put: if you liked “The Dead”, you’ll at least find this film to be a decent follow-up.
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