Wear brown trousers

Rating: 8/10 (4 January 2008)

This kind of film is what going to the flicks is all about. I was scared witless from the first moment to the last. Admittedly I hadn't realised it was a zombie movie (of sorts) before the titles rolled and it was a good 40 minutes before we even came across one, but Jeez, this is a film designed to make you jump. I won't spoil it but, as they say, wear brown trousers.
I know zombie flicks are overdone of late. But that's not a reason to overlook this freak-show.
Will Smith is in fine form, essentially carrying the movie singlehandedly with very little human intervention. That's because we understand him to be the last man standing after a genetically treated measles virus which was intended to eradicate the world of cancer went ugly overnight.
The scenes that have most redolence in this movie are the truly stunning and really eerie street scenes of an abandoned New York populated only by escaped zoo animals who aren't that handy with lawnmowers, the result being that, for example, Madison Avenue is well on its way to becoming a maize field with a bunch of abandoned, rusting cars lying around. Whole buildings are wrapped in polythyene, presumably a failed attempt to contain the virus in some way.
Smith looks great, acts pretty well and builds up a strong relationship with his only companion, his three year old Alsation, Sam.
The film is lavish. The sound engineering is both deafening and a major component to most of the shocks.
The zombies, while CGI'd at times, are genuinely creepy. They cannot come out in daylight as UV burns them on the spot so they huddle, vampire like, in 'hives' in gloomy dilapidated buildings waiting for nightfall when they take over the streets with their ghoulish hounds.
In one set piece when we KNOW Will shouldn't go into a darkened building the tension is unbearable and more drawn out than a Strictly Come Dancing result. You KNOW it will culminate in a massive fright and it does, but that doesn't stop it being eye-wateringly scary.
This is a cracker and my first 8 out of 10 movie of 2008.
Go see.