No other genre is as cyclical as horror. When a sub-genre becomes popular in the realm of scary movies, we get a lot of imitators. Be it vampires, slashers, scary aliens, or the recent "torture-porn" boom, horror movies always come in waves (which will usually lead to parody as a certain topic is about to die out). As these sub-genres run their course, we often find that filmmakers will try and put a new slant on an otherwise old idea. They hope that this will make their film stand out from the crowd. The zombie craze has been going on for nearly a decade and we've seen several variations on the theme. The Dead hopes to shake things up by offering a change in geography.

The Dead takes place in Africa and follows two characters as they deal with a zombie outbreak. Lieutenant Brian Murphy (Rob Freeman) is a military engineer who is attempting to leave the country on a plane. However, the plane crashes into the ocean and Murphy is washed ashore. He salvages some equipment from the crash and heads inland. Sergeant Daniel Dembele (Prince David Oseia) is a soldier who is looking for his son. He returned to his village only to learn that he son went with some other soldiers. Murphy finds an old truck which is still in running condition and when he encounters Dembele, he agrees to give the man a ride. They both want to go to a military base -- Murphy to find a way home and Dembele to find his son. But, in order to get there, they must traverse territory which is treacherous enough even without the flesh-eating zombies which are everywhere.

Over the years, we've seen many zombie films, but most of them have either taken place in a city or in a rural setting. The Dead is the first film which I can think of which is set in a desert-like area. (The only one which comes close is 1981's Dawn of the Mummy which featured zombie-like mummy monsters in Egypt.) We are used to seeing zombies shuffling down deserted urban streets or perhaps through a green field, but not through scrub-brush or a rocky terrain, and this is certainly a unique look.

Unfortunately, this shift in geography is the only new thing which The Dead has to offer. Everything else comes straight out of the "Zombie 101" manual. We get shuffling zombies who have completely white eyes (which almost seem to glow) and an appetite for human flesh. We meet two characters, one black and one white, who are forced to work together in order to survive. Instead of opting for the Night of the Living Dead "locked in a house" scenario, The Dead decides to be a road movie, and we watch Murphy and Dembele make their way across the country on their quest. Being a road movie, they encounter the stereotypical things like car trouble, way-stations, and bickering. There's nothing particularly interesting about the zombies. They are slow, so Romero traditionalists will like that.

This movie is almost criminally underwritten. The inspired decision to set the story in Africa should bring some other themes along with it, but it doesn't. Co-writers Howard J. Ford and Jonathan Ford have completely ignored the uniqueness of Africa and how this could have played into the film. My immediate thought was "Africa has enough problems without zombies.", but we don't get any mention of famine or strife here. One character does state that previously warring factions have banded together to fight the zombies, but we don't hear how that fighting effected the populous. The unique animals on the continent aren't brought into play. We learn very little about Murphy and Dembele, and thus, they are strangers to us, just as they are to each other. Speaking of which, you would certainly think that the film would underscore the idea of a white man and a black man being a team in Africa, but nope, this gets no play. As for the zombies, they are inexplicably everywhere. No matter how far from the villages our duo gets, there are still zombies. This seems a bit hard to believe.

Unoriginal, and uninspired, not to mention the fact that it isn't engaging, The Dead has little going for it. There are a few suspenseful scenes here, as the zombies approach unknowing or unarmed characters, but this is due to the editing. The movie is never scary or creepy. Gorehounds who are used to the likes of Dawn of the Dead won't be satisfied with the headshots and the scattered gut-munching scenes here. Setting a zombie movie on the plains of Africa is a stroke of genius, but that's where The Dead ran out of ideas.

The Dead does contain one of the better reaction shots from a chicken which I've seen lately on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Anchor Bay Entertainment. The film has been letterboxed at 1.78:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 20 Mbps. The image is very sharp and clear, showing only trace amounts of grain and no defects from the source material. A good portion of the film takes place in the bright sunshine, and these scenes don't show intrusive grain. The nighttime scenes are a tad dark. The colors look good, most notably greens and reds, which stand out against the mostly beige backgrounds. The level of detail is good, as we can see textures on objects, and the depth is acceptable. The Disc carries a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 1.8 Mbps. The track delivers clear dialogue and sound effects. This is a very impressive and active track. The surround sound and stereo effects are nearly constant, as the sound mix takes advantage of natural sounds, such as wind and bird calls, as well as the chaos and bone-crunching happening off-screen. These effects are very detailed and individual sounds don't get lost. The subwoofer effects also work well, from the plane crash to gunshots.

The Dead Blu-ray Disc contains only three extra features. We being with an AUDIO COMMENTARY from Writer/Producer/Director Howard J. Ford and Writer/Director of Photography/Co-Director Jon Ford. "The Dead: Behind the Scenes" is a 5-minute reel of on-set footage, most of it simply "fly on the wall" footage, which shows the cast and crew at work. Some of this footage is accompanied by an insert of the corresponding scene from the finished film. We see the Fords at work, but we rarely get to hear what they are saying. We get one DELETED SCENE which runs about 2 minutes. This shows Murphy running into someone he knows.