Siege of the Dead (German with English Subtitles)

First thing about this film you need to know. It's not a George Romero film, despite its “...of the Dead” title. Second thing it's actually a German film (originally titled Rammbock in German).

If you are anything like me you'll struggle to think of many German horror films. Okay, possibly the first truly great horror film, Nosferatu, was German but recently…? Well apart from another new release, Vampire movie “We Are the Night” I can't think of one either. So Germany's not renowned for horror then, but are they any good at it? Well on the evidence of this movie, there's great promise.

The story is very claustrophobic. Michi has travelled across Germany to give his ex-girlfriend her apartment key back (or, as he hopes, win her back). His broken heart is soon the last of his worries as he arrives at her apartment block as it's attacked by a horde of zombies. Cue scenes of Michi and other people trapped in their apartments trying to defend themselves against zombies (which, unfortunately for them are the strong, super-fast athletic types, rather than shambling corpses) and co-ordinating their efforts shouting across the courtyard from their windows.

It's obviously very low budget. The few effects are rudimentary but the story is surprisingly good. It's well acted too – Michael Fuith is superb as the nervous Michi. And there's one wonderful moment when the characters try to engineer an escape – as only Germans could do.

Entertaining and refreshing in a sub-genre that can be quite samey

Page updated 7 March, 2011