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Well, it mysteriously disappeared from the theater it was supposed to open at this weekend here in Denver. And the American website for the movie is gone, although the UK one was still up. So I went online and found it to watch.

It's the story of an American soldier whose evacuation plane crashes just off the African coast. The army was in the midst of trying to contain a zombie uprising, and failing. The plane was the last to leave.  He is one of the only survivors and makes his way inland looking for a means of escape. He meets an AWOL African soldier who is looking for his missing son. The soldier's home village was attacked, but the son was rescued by other soldiers and taken to a military base, hundreds of miles away of course. The American and the African join up and try to reach the base, for different reasons. The American, for escape, the African, for his son. The movie is about their journey through an undead-infested landscape, from jungle to savannah to desert.

In almost every scene, there are about five zombies emerging from the bushes or trudging across the distant background. It lends a bit of tension to every shot, and is about what I'd picture a zombie war to be like. The makeup on most are pretty minimal... white contact lenses and some ashy makeup seem to be it... but then again, they're all supposed to be more or less freshly dead, so it doesn't really matter. What matters is some actually deformed locals were used in the movie, with withered limbs, etc. Slap a few protruding-broken-bone prosthetics on them, and you have a highly disturbing zombie. I don't really like the science behind a guy dying and coming back a minute later with white eyes, but the contrast on the predominantly black faces is striking.

The cinematography was good and so was the color... no monotones or filters here. I enjoyed the story and the acting, although I don't think it was a classic. It needed a little something to push it into greatness, but I suppose just making a film this good in Africa is an achievement.