Siege of the Dead - 28 Days Later - `the fifth' (by my count)

It's widely regarded that most people loved '28 Days Later.' Then it spawned an official sequel ('28 Weeks Later') and then other countries got in on the `new-look running zombie' action.

The remake of 'Dawn of the Dead' was sort of like '28 Days Later' in America.  Then we had 'La Horde' which was effectively '28 Days Later' in France and now we have 'Siege of the Dead,' which is basically '28 Days Later' in Germany (albeit with a slight shade of 'Shaun of the Dead' thrown in there for good measure!).

Now, if we English can just get past the, `Oh, so Germany's overrun by zombies, huh? Well, never mind,' attitude, the film's actually pretty good.

Lovefilm's blurb on 'Siege of the Dead' says it's laced with `humour.' I like to think I have a sense of humour, but I couldn't see much in this. I found it basically a straight horror through and through, but with only a hint or two of black comedy here and there (although the giant teddy bear suit made me chuckle!).

It's claustrophobic, tense, and has good (normal) characters we can relate to.  It seems to go to great lengths to show us that the people caught up in this nightmare are pretty damn 'regular folk' and have their own personal problems to deal with along with the undead infestation.  Plus nobody does anything totally crazy and, when they do, it is in keeping with that character's established traits.  Also I have to make mention of the 'unsung star' for the film, a bunny rabbit called 'Fluffi.' Personally, I'd like to see him go on to start in other films after this!  Although it has a small budget, it was put to good use. There's not that much gore, but that's also probably down to the lack of mega-budget.

If you like the '28 Days Later' style of zombie movie (and don't mind subtitles and films that are under an hour in length) give this one a go and, if nothing else, you may learn of an interesting new weapon to fight zombies/the infected - click click click.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that