Siege of the Dead

There will always be a certain expectation for any film that title finishes with '... of the Dead' due to the classic films of George A. Romero but that is something that any distributor has to weigh up because that phrase will get the attention of any horror fan but inevitably raise expectations perhaps beyond where they would be if the film had another title. In this case, the original title was Rammbock and has been oddly been translated into English as Siege of the Dead.

The film begins with Michael arriving in Berlin as he has hitched a lift on the premise of giving his keys back to his ex-girlfriend, Gabi, but is really just there to see her and try one more time. Once he gets to her apartment, he finds it empty apart from a couple of plumbers who are refitting the central heating. Whilst the younger of the two, Harper, is are getting some supplies, his boss is on his hands and knees and clearly in some distress and, when Harper re-enters the flat, the man (now with white eyes and foaming slightly at the mouth) attacks his employee and it takes Harper and Michael or less strength to force him out of the apartment and to block the door. Furthermore, Gabi is nowhere to be seen and she isn't answering her cellphone.

Now locked inside the apartment block, Michael and his new friend look out on the quadrangle which is deserted and covered in litter and only a few neighbours are doing likewise. One of them, a big muscular brute called Manni, appears to have been bitten but is not yet showing any signs of being infected. All of the TV stations are out apart from one which is broadcasting some news about the infection, including an interview with the government spokesman who tells everyone to stay indoors and not venture out even if it is to check on friends and family. It isn't long before even the TV signal has gone but the radio is still there, informing people that you can be bitten but keep the infection at bay if you stay calm, take sedatives and avoid getting angry, upset or otherwise get the adrenaline pumping.

One of the neighbours claims to have plenty of food and will exchange it for sedatives for his recently bitten wife and someone shouts across the quadrangle that there is an old woman who is addicted to sedatives, needing her stomach pumped at least once a month, so Michael and Harper smash through one of their apartment walls in order to try and get round the apartment block and collect the sedatives. On the way, Michael and Harper become separated because the zombies are following them and Michael ends up on the roof where he can see the destruction wreaked across Berlin.


Siege of the Dead is a fairly brief film, running at 61 minutes and 31 seconds including credits but this means there is a great deal of action packed into not much time so it runs at quite a pace, as do the infected, who have more in common with the homicidal killers from [REC] and 28 Days Later than the shambling zombies of Romero's films and Plague of the Zombies. This means that they can run and smash down doors despite their physical injuries and they have only one weakness which I won't divulge here to avoid spoiling the film.

For what it is, Siege of the Dead is an extremely enjoyable and well paced zombie flick with likeable protagonists, a fairly nihilistic subtext and decent amounts of gore for the attacks.


The Disc

The Picture
This clearly wasn't made with a huge budget yet the film looks exceptionally good with decent zombie effects, SFX make-up and backdrops for the more apocalyptic scenes. Generally, it keeps it tight and tense with action taking place inside a single room rather than in an expansive environment, such as a shopping mall.

Colours and contrast levels are very good so that when the lights go out and things are fairly grim on screen, you can still make out what is going on, but only to the extent that you see as much as the characters do.


The Sound
The only sound option is the Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo and German one, which maintains the native dialogue so you don't end up with any stupid dubbing that sounds completely wrong and take you out of the film completely.

Subtitle-wise, the on-screen translation is very good and faithful to the dialogue and the only mistake is when a translation comes up as 'thanks you' rather than 'thank you'. They are also clear and easy to read and, even though the dialogue may be extremely quick, they don't disappear before you have had a chance to read them.


Final Thoughts
Revolver Entertainment aren't asking too much for this, with an RRP of £9.99 and available online for much less, but you are buying a disc with no extra features and with just over an hour of film. Even so, the movie is very good and I liked it an awful lot -- it's no genre classic but, and I never thought I'd say this, it's a damn sight better than George Romero's last film.

Siege of the Dead (a.k.a. Rammbock) marks the writer-director team of Benjamin Hessler and Martin Kren (both making their feature film debut) as talents to be followed. For horror fans and those who particularly like zombie films, this is worth at least a rental if not a blind buy.