SO close to being perfect!

Rating: Null/10 (27 March 2004)

(WARNING - may contain spoilers. Actually, it WILL contain them.)
OH this came so close to perfect! I have a few gripes about it, and a few good comments.
First the gripes:
1) WHY are the dead walking?? Sure, the priest *suggests* that Hell is full, but it never really just comes out and says it. I wanna know what happened to these folks! Maybe the mystery is supposed to be part of the horror, but when I see a horror movie, I want answers!
2) To me, the movie starts out WAY too fast. Everything is hunkey-dorey when BOOM she's thrust into a world of terror for no particular reason. All within the first 10-15 minutes. I want a story to set up at least a little bit before I see people mutilated.
Now the nice compliments: 1) In this one, the dead were actually scary!! None of that "fifty years in the grave" look with grey make-up and old men. And none of that "Buuhhhhh I'm coming to get you" slow zombie stomp/walk with the arms straight forward thing, either. No chanting of "Brains! Brains!" The dead were like normal people only harder to kill because they were FAST!!! Now the characters actually have reason to run. The dead are more like the savages we make them out to be, not 99-year-old geezers that have the munchies.

2) The ending. At first I thought it was dissappointing, but then I watched the rest of the credits and was thoroughly fulfilled of my need to NOT have a "Drifting into the sunset" ending.
All in all, I'm giving this movie an 8, which in my book is really, really good!