ANGER OF THE DEAD

The world is shaken by a virus that turns humans into aggressive cannibalistic zombies. Alice and Nicholas wander among the wrecks of cars in search of something useful for survival, but a pack of hungry zombies intercepts them, surrounds them, and prepares to feast on their flesh. Until the roar of a motorcycle introduces Mr. Z 77, who perhaps represents salvation for the two unfortunate souls. Or perhaps not… In his third short film, after the funny “A Joke of Too Much” and the excellent “I am Dead,” the young Francesco Picone decides to tackle one of the currently most popular genres, the zombie movie. The first thing that stands out when watching “Anger of the Dead” is the professionalism and high technical quality of which the work can boast. A small film made in a truly excellent way that almost makes us forget that we are dealing with an independent work. A bit of everything in “Anger of the Dead” suggests high quality, from the photography – curated by Picone himself – to the sets, passing obligatorily through the special effects and the performances. The bluish and predominantly desaturated chromatic tones manage to create that funeral atmosphere typical of certain modern genre productions and, for certain aspects, also due to the “zombie” theme, it recalls the two zombie movies by Luca Boni and Marco Ristori “Eaters” and “Zombie Massacre,” also for the contamination with action. But the not-so-veiled connections between Picone’s work and those of Boni and Ristori do not stop there, since the makeup effects are made in both cases by the very competent Carlo Diamantini and among the performers is Alex Lucchesi, now a true icon of certain Italian underground cinema. Speaking of makeup effects, setting aside that Diamantini is now a master and that the creatures are really impressive, I feel obliged to make a small criticism of the concept of the living dead as it appears here and in other independent films, Italian and non. Often, to recreate the bony and skeletal faces, there is a tendency to add prosthetics to the actors' faces, resulting in making the zombies look like uber-zombies! That is, a contrary effect to the desired one is created: the faces, instead of being skeletal, look swollen, with ultra-prominent cheekbones, which certainly do not reproduce the reality of a decomposing body. Really good the cast, with the always likable character actor Lucchesi, here in a tough/bastard role that suits his way of being, and a Serena Bilanceri, in the role of Alice, really good and convincing. As often happens when we deal with zombies, originality is optional, and we have the classic zombie outbreak scenario and the ferocious and agile living dead that tear chunks of flesh from their victims. In particular, a blatant influence from the TV series “The Walking Dead” is noted, especially regarding the location at the heart of the action, namely a stretch of highway with abandoned car wrecks around which small “herds” of “wanderers” roam, a scene we have seen more than once in the series created by Robert Kirkman. Everything is well compacted and optimally contextualized, thus making the lack of originality a paradoxical advantage, as the short is thus perfectly linked to an imagery well present in the viewer. “Anger of the Dead” is a short film made indisputably well, the best among those made so far by Picone considering the overall package, a decisive proof of this author’s preparation who, at this point, has all the credentials to attempt the adventure of the feature film. If you want to see “Anger of the Dead,” you can buy the DVD at this link.