Zombie Film Review:

Severed: Forest of the Dead

Year: 2004

Director: Carl Bessai

A.k.a.: Severed

Tagline: -

Review: Good production values from the off with a plot that you find yourself intrigued by… Chainsaws, Eco-warriors, evil corporates and family ties are involved, the good start got me excited and the film only got better. Would-be survivors armed with chunks of wood, good panicky cinematography and plenty of claret all add to the atmosphere, then it all goes a bit 28 Days Later towards the end and this is excellent! Surprisingly for a zombie film, when you read the credits of some of the crew on the DVD box, there are films mentioned that you have actually heard of like Freddy Vs. Jason, Slither and Final Destination, so it has quite a high horror lineage behind it too!

Zombie Quality: ***

Unusual but good, pale yellow veiny zombies with red rimmed eyes and covered in their victims claret, nothing ground-breaking but this film shows you that if you choose a uniformity amongst your zommers and stick to it then you will end up with something quite special.

Zombie Behaviour: ****

They get infected, stagger around, eat flesh and infect everyone, no talking, running or trick riding… Good pure zombie behaviour with no gimics.

Zombie Threat: ***

Quick infection rate from bites, cuts and chainsaws, it's a good job this outbreak was in the forest or it certainly would have been curtains for the world!

Gore Content: ***

Blood flies all over this one, nothing too much in the way of eye watering set pieces but the amount of agonising deaths, flying blood, industrial equipment and chainsaws give this film a excellent relentless feeling in regards to blood.

Overall Quality: ****

Good performances, sets, effects, story and best of all a top, gory zombie atmosphere that involves the viewer from start to finish, this mixed with the '28 Days' question of who is worse the zombies or the humans, make this a film that if you decide to only buy 10 zombie films in your life, then this should be one of them!