War Of The Dead movie review – Toronto After Dark Film Festival

Oct 22 2011- Tonight at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival we watched the World Premiere of War of The Dead. This movie comes from us from Finnish director Marko Mäkilaakso and was filmed on location in Lithuania. All the dialogue is in English and work on it started in 2006.

The movie is fundamentally a survivor flick set in World War 2.A group of Finnish soldiers are set on a mission to find a bunker behind enemy lines. We find out that this bunker was used by the German Nazis to conduct “undead soldier” experiments on the Russians at the beginning of the movie. The movie has beautiful cinematography and stunning locations (which at times reminded me a bit like Inglourious Basterds in vibe). The first half is set out in the woods where the Finns are moving in to their target. This locale is hands down the perfect location for this movie, and really transports the viewer to those cold Finnish woods full of pissed off zombies. The second location is the bunker where we find a zombie infestation. The bunker itself is a beautiful set and this is where we got allot of shaky cam and dark lighting induced claustrophobia. Once things start to roll we are left with basically 3 protagonists – one Soviet soldier, one Finnish soldier and one US soldier. The action is fast paced but sometimes a bit too close up. At times we were left wondering who was fighting who, and who was killing what. The movie was very good but we didn’t find it particularly scary or suspenseful. Overall the movie was very good and we had a great time. The action was fast and furious just like we expected, the location was stunning, and the characters were likeable enough to not want to see their brains be eaten. Of note was the excellent music and sound effects which helped the mood of the movie.