DVD review: Dead Survivors (2010)

A terrible virus has turned the inhabitants of an entire city into bloodthirsty zombies. A small group of survivors around the elite fighter Chris Burnside (Michael Krug) tries to wait out the epidemic in hiding. When their shelter is invaded by a horde of undead, they have to flee. The town is now deserted and dangers lurk everywhere. After the fuel has run out, they fight on foot through the woods. Quite unexpectedly, they discover an old manor house, which stands for the response to the virus, and a few other nasty surprises. Dead Survivors is written and directed by David Brückner. The character Chris Burnside is supposed to be a highly skilled fighter but I´m not that impressed, he seems to prefer to settle things with blades or martial arts instead of using his gun but the thing is that the action is only passable. Granted, some things you can still watch. It seems as if the choreographer designed the fights to look like a mix of basic course martial arts and backyard wrestling but it looks pretty embarrassing. I simpy don´t understand why you should fight zombies with kicks and wrestling moves when you can use a gun or machete. The film is very reminicent of the Resident Evil films in the way that it´s more action than horror and  The pacing is pretty good, it never gets boring but the acting is pretty bad but the lighting, editing, music and cinematography is decent. There is surprisingly little gore in Dead Survivors, some of it is practical make-up fx and some are computer gendered. The filmmakers also use some pretty bad CGI for muzzleflashes, Blackhawk helicopters, explosions and to enhance some of the surroundings but I've seen things from American studios that looked worse. No T & A in this one...
This review is based upon the region 2 DVD release from Warner Vision Group, it´s uncut and german language only.
Rating: 4 out of 7. Dead Survivors is something of a disapointment as I had high hopes for it. The influence of the major Hollywood productions is the biggest weakness of Dead Survivors and it lacks the blood and gore that hardline zombie fans demands. I must nevertheless say that I´m sure Dead Survivors will find its fans and I've seen far worse.

/JL