Prior to watching AMC’s The Walking Dead, zombie films/television series weren’t really something that I sought out. I truly believe that I appreciated this film because I’ve watched The Walking Dead. The intro into a film can easily break it even before it gets going; this intro did quite the opposite. Within the first five minutes of the film the outbreak occurred and certain things hit the fan. Being able to jump right into the action rather than having to sit and wait for something interesting to happen really pulled me into the story. I thought the casting was phenomenal. Joseph Middleton did an outstanding job of finding the best people for the roles in this film. He used a wide range of actors; from those that most people have probably never heard of (such as Sarah Polley) to actors that are household names now in Hollywood (i.e. Ving Rhames). For a good portion of the film Mekhi Phifer’s Andre was my favorite character. As his character began to falter a bit towards the middle of the film Michael Kelly’s CJ stepped up and became one of the best characters. I very much appreciated the fact that Kevin Zegers was in this film after I had seen him portray Mel in Fear the Walking Dead. I couldn’t help but ask myself if him being associated with this film allowed him the opportunity to earn a role in AMC’s FTWD. The names associated with directing and writing were incredible. To have Zach Snyder and James Gunn work together on a film is truly awesome and I thought that they did a wonderful job. Two things that stood out to me was the use of sound throughout the film and the use of color towards the end of the film. There were certain sounds like a shotgun being loaded or of a zombie biting into the neck of one of its victims that stood out and was made very prominent. This not only signified the importance of these actions but caused me to be on the edge of my seat, waiting for something dramatic to happen and potentially make me jump. Toward the end of the film the lighting was dim and dull. Colors almost didn’t exist in the final ten minutes or so as things began to get really bad for the characters in the film and it appeared that they had lost the ability to prevail. I truly enjoyed this film and can’t help but think that The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead were, in some ways, inspired by the original film from 1978. P.S. I thought Richard Cheese & Lounge Against The Machine’s rendition of “Down with the Sickness” was remarkable. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363547/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
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