THE DEAD TIMES

RATING:

ZOMBIE RATING:

DESCRIPTION:

A mysterious virus has swept the globe, turning the majority of its inhabitants into "infected"; crazed demons in human form that show no obvious signs of intelligence and pursue prey with only a single blasphemous desire - the need to feed. One man, somehow infected with the virus but not turned, can communicate with the rage-fuelled monstrosities, proving that some ability to think and reason must remain within their putrefied souls. This breakthrough forces the remnants of humanity on a quest to hunt down a "Patient Zero" - the first man or woman to be infected - in the hope of finding a cure.

MY VERDICT:

Quite simply, Patient Zero is the remake of Day of Dead we deserve, just not the one we need right now. It's all there; the scientists, the military and the civilians cooped up in a fortified underground bunker, scientists and military bickering about how to deal with the living dead while the civilians just try to stay alive. There is even a Bub-type infected (or Zombie) which proves to be more intelligent than the masses and has a large part to play in the eventual end, which - not to give away any spoilers - is basically the same as Day of the Dead. There are also strong notes of 28 Days Later with extremely agile, rage-driven infected; snarling and gnashing as military officers restrain them for study. The only major original idea of this movie is the one guy who can somehow - it's never really made clear how - talk with the infected. This raises a few questions; is he snarling when he is talking with beasts that, to outsiders, only snarl? Will he die since he is infected, the virus just spreading through his body more slowly? The whole concept seems as though it was added to make the film feel unique and, to be honest, it is the most disappointing aspect of the movie. You see, Patient Zero is not a terrible movie; the production values are good, the acting is very passable and, given the two down-right awful remakes of Day of the Dead there have been, it's a pleasure to see someone get it right but, with nothing new to offer, the question is, was it really worth producing in the first place? The answer is a fairly depressing, probably not.