Today we’ve got something especially big for you, folks, as our friends out at Anchor Bay sent out a copy of The Dead for me to review for you. And not only was this one a bear to make, it’s also going to be something impressive to see.

The Dead takes us out to Africa, where the last evacuation flight out is having some substantial troubles. In fact, it winds up crashing off the coast, and now the survivors find themselves not only in the midst of a wartorn area, but also in a whole lot worse trouble. See, what they’re evacuating is an Africa in the midst of full-on zombie apocalypse, and the survivors of the last evacuation flight are going to have a terrible time getting home. But is there even a home to go to?

The Dead almost never made it to shelves, folks, as it reportedly suffered a whole lot of production delays almost from the word go. The lead actor had been mugged, at knifepoint, on the first day of shooting. The director had to regularly bribe police. The production felt downright cursed, but they stuck it out and in the end brought us this.

The end result, for all that perseverance and all that sheer devotion to the craft, is a spectacular piece of zombie fare that’s all the more impressive for taking place in some remote location. It brings to mind the original Fulci works, which were often set in unusual locations, though these zombies seem to obey, pretty strictly, Romero physics.

It’s hard to imagine how a zombie movie could end up an action buddy road movie, but The Dead will do exactly that. Frankly, this is surprising good, if perhaps a smidge short on zombies. That and I personally enjoy, when it comes to zombie movies, seeing the results of the apocalypse. And frankly, post-apocalypse Africa looks a whole lot like pre-apocalypse Africa. I don’t get the immediate, visceral jarring that I like from my zombie apocalypse titles–still remember that dread I got from the first few minutes of the Dawn of the Dead remake when the clouds of smoke were rising up over the suburban skyline–but it still does a fair job with what it’s got. And the ending, oh man…that’s the best part of the whole thing.

It’s expansive, it’s impressive, it’s most everything you could hope for in a zombie flick, though not everything. And thus, the Screenhead Ten Scale hands over a nine out of ten to this terrific, but not perfect, shot of zombie apocalypse in a place we’ve never seen it happen before.