Director: Lucio Rojas and Cristian Toledo
Year: 2011
Country: Chile
Alternate Titles: Muerte ciega; Blind Death
Genre: Zombie
Plot:
In the middle of a zombie outbreak, a group of soldiers and government personnel return to an area where years earlier a zombie outbreak occurred in a remote village, and upon arriving find themselves confronted by untrustworthy alliances and ravenous zombie hordes.
Review:
Overall, this was a pretty solid indie zombie effort. One of the strongest aspects here is the way this brings about some enjoyable low-budget zombie action that’s far more impressive than it should be. The opening battle in the slums of the city is a fantastic start with the chaos of the civilians running through the ruins while the overwhelmed soldiers are getting swarmed and killed despite being equipped with the high-end weaponry. The small combat scene out in the countryside where they encounter the small group of creatures in the underground tunnels is quite fun setting up a later scene where the soldiers are involved with a fine firefight with rebels out in the wilderness.
As fun as that is, the film hits its stride in the final half where the zombies overrun the compound hideout where they’re staying. With the various double-crosses and allegiance shifts that are going on throughout this segment, the distractions allow for the creatures to sneak inside and get the drop on them at various points resulting in some great firefights to take down the advancing hordes. Since this one goes for a much stronger and bullet-resistant form of zombies than usual, the amount of firepower required to kill them makes the scenes far more fun than normal scenes which makes the encounters throughout the house. With the reveal of what they’re doing for the mission and a fine twist to everything, there’s enough to like about the film.
There are some problems with this one. Among the film’s biggest issues here is the rather slack and drawn-out pacing that occurs in the middle of the film where it spends a large portion of time on the soldiers running through the countryside getting to their destination. Featuring the group talking about how they get caught up in the confines of the situation, what they plan to do once they get through with the mission or just generally trying to have conversations with each other which just drags the film down considerably. There’s no zombie action at all and these scenes don’t really amount to any real activity at all.
The other minor flaw in the film is a rather complex and unnecessary series of interactions that make no sense overall. The entire idea of the soldiers going into the wasteland is never truly explained since the voiceover says the purpose is to remain a secret and then it gets diverted by the discovery of the feral girl. This really throws the motivations of everyone into question when everyone continually makes the logical and reasonable series of arguments about why they continue to do so yet all he does is throw it back in their face about being the boss, then he leaves his squad unreprimanded when they go against orders or do something to give themselves away. It’s troubling and holds this one back somewhat.
Overview: **.5/5
Filled with some solid action and a couple of minor flaws that come about mainly due to inexperience that keeps the film that low, the rest of this one is enjoyable and has a lot to like about it. It’s worth a look for fans of low-budget indie zombie films or those curious about the evolution of the creative crew, while those turned off by the flaws featured here should heed caution.
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