The Dead 2: India (2013)


REVIEWER RATING: 
6/10


The Dead seemingly came out of nowhere in 2010 and (with the unconventional African backdrop) brought back the old school slow-moving zombies. Sure, it had its share of problems, but it was still a head above other indie efforts thanks to its competent writing and directing from the Ford brothers. Now we have a sequel that's once again brought to us by the brothers, but this time set in India. I wish I could say that this was superior than its predecessor and that the brothers have clearly learned from their mistakes, but I'd be lying. It's not exactly a bad film, but it is a somewhat disappointing one.

The story focuses on an American turbine engineer, as he races across several hundred miles of desert by any means necessary (fighting and avoiding the dead along the way) in hopes of getting to his pregnant GF in the city. The movie isn't much different from the first, which is one of its biggest flaws.  We once again have a protagonist that has to hit the road and make it from Point A to Point B, even getting help from a local boy during his travels. Not only is the premise not much different, but neither is the location. Despite being set in India, much of the desert and open landscape shown is often reminiscent of what was encountered in the first movie. The similarities are even more apparent in the night time driving scenes, which almost seemed like they simply reused footage from the first flick.

Aside from feeling like I was watching the first movie over again, another issue I had were the scenes involving the GF in the city. Each time the film would transition back to her the pacing seemed to almost come to a halt and I honestly couldn't help but feel bored whenever she was on-screen. Actually all the city scenes seemed like a missed opportunity to show how fast and grand of a scale this thing spreads. I'm guessing due to budget restraints we're forced to just have a majority of the city scenes simply set inside the GF's family home.

Despite all the negative I've had to say, the flick is still far from being bad-- for one, they've managed to make zombies actually scary again. I've personally never been creeped out by zombies until these Dead films came along. Why? Because while these guys may move at a snail's pace, they are persistent and make absolutely no noise. So they could essentially creep up on you in the middle of the night and you wouldn't even know it until it's too late. It's a huge improvement from all the recent sprinter zombies that make all sorts of growling noises. That just becomes tiring after a while.

Although there were some pacing issues and it felt like a retread of the first movie at times, it kept my interest (for the most part) and is still far from being as bad as many of the recent indie genre efforts we normally get. If you dug the first film then give this a look, but don't expect much of an improvement (or difference) from its predecessor.
OVERALL: 
Although there were some pacing issues and it felt like a retread of the first movie at times, it kept my interest (for the most part) and is still far from being as bad as many of the recent indie genre efforts we normally get. If you dug the first film then give this a look, but don't expect much of an improvement (or difference) from its predecessor.


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