Strides out, grabs your attention, falls on its backside

Rating: 4/10 (27 August 2005)

I have no soap-box to stand on regarding the original version and this remake, I looked at this as an entirely unrelated film and this review is without fanboy mailce.
First impressions.. bloody brilliant! It was high-octane and genuinely unsettling, the whole running-zombies doesn't cause me any concern either - admittedly some die-hard zombie fans were unimpressed but I think the majority will find them believable and quite acceptable. The opening shots in particular were a joy to behold.
This delight continued till at least half way through the film, till things started going badly wrong with the script. Having laid it on thick that these characters are in a survival setting, the film starts inducing cretinism which spreads like a disease through the desperate band of survivors.
It seems to me that the writer(s) ran out of ideas when it came to the grand finale, and resorted to bodging up the second half of the film in order to make something happen. It's easy to see the way the writer envisioned this, if only because the deterioration of the script is so profound.
An irritating antagonist figure (who was never needed in the first place), a dog and a conveniently timed empty stomach all add up to a bizarre sequence of events that occurs where something a darn sight better should have. Won't elaborate - see for yourself if the idea of the film tickles you.
Opportunities to darken the tone of the film, make the characters likable or at least someone you could be sympathetic towards are wasted. Character emotions are botched completely - misplaced 'romance' and cheesy lines seriously detract from the film. Again, this happens as a domino effect, no sign of this early in the film, then halfway through the stodge sets in fast.
The most irritating thing is that if the film had continued in the same vein as it had started, this would probably be one of my favourite films, period. As it is, I can't stand to even watch the thing again.
Despite having a marked dislike for the end product and scoring it as such, I would expect the majority of horror fans to enjoy this, with two exceptions:
A) Hardcore zombie fans who are really into the idea of zombies slowly shuffling - softly softly catchee meatbag style. B) Those who've ever thought "what the hell are you doing!? That's just stupid" when seeing this kind of film.
Some argue that this kind of dumbness is a necessity in slasher type films, but to me the film set the scene with arguing survivors in a situation and promptly made them act like complete chimps because nobody could figure a way of playing the film out properly.
If nothing said here puts you off then please do go ahead and enjoy yourself with this film, regardless of the factors which get right up my nose it can't be said that the film has no merits.