Over time, zombie movies have graduated from a sub-genre of horror to a genre in their own right. These films have been dominated by George A. Romero for decades, and we can’t forget the television adaptation of The Walking Dead. Amidst the zombie craze comes a movie originally released in Europe in 2009 and released in America in October of 2011. The Dead is a Ford Brothers film set in present day apocalyptic West Africa that follows two men through a terrain dominated by zombies.

An American engineer, Brian Murphy (Rob Freeman), is the sole survivor of a plane crash that occurred during evacuation from West Africa. After washing up on the shore of a beach, he grabs supplies he finds on land and begins his trek to find safety and a way home. Murphy runs into Daniel Dembele (Prince David Osei), a local soldier who has deserted his post to check on his family. The two team up to make their way across West Africa in search of a military base, one hoping to return home and the other in search of his son. While the plot isn’t exactly riveting, it does its job in balancing out the gore.

The zombies Murphy and Dembele encounter are some of the scariest of our time. Their gruesome faces and mangled bodies are sure to make the viewers’ stomachs turn. With plenty of vivid attack scenes and gory shots, this film does more than hold its own in the zombie genre while still maintaining an interesting, albeit padded, story line. As the movie follows the two men on their journey, the viewer is treated to a true representation of what a zombie movie should be.