The world might well be oversaturated with zombie films over
the last decade or so and because of this it seems to be very rare to find a
zombie film that offers up anything new let alone being something to get
excited about seeing. But Christoph Behl’s The Desert mostly focuses its
attention on the human interaction and dynamics of their relationships rather
than get too overly obsessed with the zombies of the post apocalyptic world in
which the movie is set – something that made the original Romero's Dead Trilogy
so fantastic and also The Walking Dead comics so enthralling; The Desert tells
a failed love triangle story of Ana, Axel and Jonathan who’ve managed to hole
them self up with a make shift defensive barriers keeping the zombies and other
survivors at a safe distance, the films tight script makes you really
connection with the characters struggle to deal with being cut off from
humanity with only themselves for company, as the story unravels we see the
origins of the love triangle form and later their friendship is tested to the
limit with in introduction of Pythagoras (a zombie captured from one of their
missions to the outside world). With a gripping story and a dirty aesthetic
feel to the film, we are brought straight into this post apocalyptic world and
while the film does have a controlled slower pace throughout, I wouldn’t say
that there’s ever a dull moment or a lull in the interest and intrigue that we
have for the main characters and by the end you feel like you’ve been on
journey that looks at the challenges that humans would face during a zombie
outbreak, both physically and emotionally, The Desert is a low-key affair but
it delivers in all the right areas and steers well clear of the glorified
Hollywood take on the genre, which ultimately pays dividends making the film
one of the best Zombie films to come out in recent years.
No. 5 Worst - Hammer of the Gods dir Farren Blackburn
With the recent success on TV of shows like Game of Thrones
and Vikings, the synopsis and setting of Hammer of Gods had me quite excited
going into the film, especially after the Red Band Trailer hit YouTube and it
all looked rather promising for a good violent romp of battle scenes and the historical
Norse setting. Unfortunately within minutes of the films opening credits, my
expectations and hopes where shot down dead; while the trailer looks actually
pretty well done, the finished article is very bland, it’s filmed in such a
manner, combined with the level of acting you’d expect to see in the daily soap
operas – that the Hammer of Gods doesn’t sell to you that we are back in the
age of the Norse warriors, but more like witnessing a battle re-enactment
taking place in present day in some open field/moorland. Everything from the
characters to the plot feels underdeveloped and executed very poorly, the
violence is rendered meaningless and cheap as the story lacks any sense of
cohesion and direction; The Hammer of the Gods never gets out of the starting
blocks and pales in comparison to the History Channel’s series Vikings; it’s
second rate of that at best and due to its lack of focus the films pacing is
very sporadic and feels like it drags on a lot longer that the premise/story
warrants; don’t be fooled by the Red Band Trailer like I was, strongly
recommend avoiding this at all costs as I’m struggling to find any redeeming
features to pick out that the film does even moderately well.
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