War of the Dead (2011)

Happy World Zombie Day everybody! And what better way to celebrate World Zombie Day, than to look at 'War of the Dead'. And before we go into this, we need a history lesson. During the Second World War, Finland's involvement was primarily defensive. From 1939 to 1945, Finland took part in three separate wars from World War II, the Winter War, the Continuation War, and the Lapland War. In the Winter War the Finnish took on (Soviet) Russia, who had conquered Finland during the Finnish War of 1809, which ended with Finland surrendering about 10% of land and 30% of its economy. The Continuation War took place when Finland allied with Nazi Germany, after Russia demanded control of a mining area. The Lapland War then took place between Finland and Nazi Germany when Finland agreed to a ceasefire with Russia, and Nazi Germany effectively refused to leave. If you want more information, do what I did and look at Wikipeda.

This certainly helps when Finnish soldiers in this film don't like Russian soldiers, despite the fact that they're both fighting the Nazis. An then we have our main character, Martin Stone (Andrew Tiernan), who leads a squad consisting of American and Finnish forces. The problem? The film takes place in March 1941, nine months before America entered the War. However, from what I've been told, the US and UK did actually support Finland against Soviet Russia and did assist Finland...as ambulance drivers.

So why Stone and other American soldiers are here is unknown. In fact, the film itself raises this question twice, once when two soldiers talk about Stone's involvement, and when one character flat out asks Stone why he's there, saying "It's not his war". It is actually hinted that Stone came along because he was "looking for death" and rejoin his late wife...but that still doesn't explain how America entered the war nine months early.

So with those few blips out of the way...this is actually a great film.

Bizarrely for a film which starts off with an entire squadron of characters, most are killed off in both a German ambush and zombie attacks. We are effectively left with three characters, Stone, Finnish Lieutenant Laakso (Mikko Leppilampi), and Russian Private Kolya (Samuel Vauramo). Well, four if you count the zombie-turned Captain Niemi (Jouko Ahola). We also meet Koyla's ex, Dasha (Magdalena Gorska). The three main characters are very enjoyable to watch, they all have their own 'awesome' scenes and bits in the film, and are actually likable.

I have to say, Koyla is actually my favourite character. Vauramo plays him brilliantly, he has some of the most emotional scenes in the film, actually probably has some of the most awesome scenes in the film, is the most likable, and is actually smart. While the other characters are really good as well, the acting can be better, particularly Gorska, at times I forgot she was even there. I do like how the film has a dash of the old Romero's 'Night of the Living Dead' as well, where people from different backgrounds have to try and put aside their differences in order to survive.

Most of the effects, from grenade explosions to gunfire and the zombie make up are actually pretty damn good, even for a low budget production like this. Oh yeah, this is a low budget production, but you really don't get that from the film. Well, some things you do, but overall this is on par with high budget productions.

Sure, it has it's blips, but at the end of the day, this is actually a very entertaining film. Zombie Nazi's have been done before, but this doesn't actually feel like a zombie or a war film, I suppose that's why it feels somewhat fresh. It doesn't take itself too seriously, but you can see that a lot of effort has been put into it, you can see why it's so entertaining.