Almost Dead (2016) by Giorgio Bruno


Director: Giorgio Bruno
Year: 2016
Country: Italy
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Zombie

Plot:
Waking up in a wrecked car, a bound woman with no memory of her situation is suddenly thrust into a fight for her life when she discovers a series of flesh-eating zombies swarming around her car and must use what little resources she has available in order to stave off becoming one of the undead herself.

Review:

This was a surprisingly enjoyable effort. What really works nicely for this one is the unique setup that starts the film off which gives the film a mysterious start. Taking the idea of her being in the middle of the woods, completely unaware of what's going on and must first free herself from the duct-tape bonds she finds herself in and then try to get her bearings while the zombies start coming appearing on he scene. Alongside the phone calls she continually tries to place in order to understand what's happening as the information gathered at that point help this one significantly, this setup offers an intriguing start to things.

That turns the action in these scenes to be highly enjoyable. The main setting off a crashed car in the woods offers up plenty of nice scenes where the zombies swarm around the car and take on a series of frantic confrontations as they attempt to break in. The first encounter with the doomed fellow survivor and the failed escape that have to force them back inside offers a nice starting point for some of the later action where she has to stop the infected who were in the car with her. Armed with a finely emotional finale that gives this a nice gut-punch while also displaying some really effective zombie make-up and gore, these all help this one overall.


There are some flaws to be had here. The main issue is the fact that the film can't really overcome it's low-budget limitations. The fact that this one has to stay inside the car and rarely ventures outside as this only manages to feature several sojourns outside the car, and even then it only lasts for a few brief moments before retreating back inside, leaves this one quite obvious with what's going on. Likewise, with well over half the movie featuring her on the phone learning about what's going on with the backstory about the virus that eats up the running time without having a lot of zombie action present here which keeps this one down for the most part, simply existing to create long dialog scenes to drive the film along.

The other real flaw here is the lack of rationale given the story that are just hard to grasp. The main problem with that is the fact that a big deal was made of her phones' battery about to die, yet without charging it they're able to talk the entire movie which really is quite a huge error to overlook. On top of that, the whole point of the conversations in the first place offer up an endless round of questions that range from in-universe questions to filmmaking tactics, going so far as to include why they continually switch accents for the characters during the conversations. It's all rather suspect and really holds this one back.


Overview: **1/2/5
While it's not really able to overcome it's budget limitations and some logic questions, an intriguing premise and some fun zombie action when it occurs manages to make this one wholly enjoyable. Give this a chance if you're a fan of these kinds of efforts or a hardcore zombie completionist, while those that don't appreciate what's going on here should avoid this one overall.

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