‘After 100 years, they have risen.’
Clash of the Dead – aka World War Dead: Rise of the Fallen – is a 2015 British zombie horror film written and directed by Freddie Hutton-Mills and Bart Ruspoli (Cryptic; Devil’s Playground). The Atomic Level Films production stars Ray Panthaki, Wendy Glenn and Kacey Barnfield.
To celebrate the centenary of WW1, a television documentary team travels to the Somme in France to put together a ratings smash about new mysteries relating to the famous battle.
However, what they unearth is far from a new story of those that died 100 years ago – but an army of the undead and a brand new war…
Reviews:
“The first third is where it finds most success, establishing some great characters […] The film’s descent into a rather generic stalk n’ slash orientated final third is one area that disappoints, but in general this is one zombie flick that converts your initial groan of reluctance into a harrumph of re-evaluation.” Dave Wain, The Schlock Pit
“Visiting the site of the Battle of the Somme, the filmmakers at least seem like they had a good holiday whilst filming. There’s no real build-up of tension here and very few set-ups for later on. Once the crew discover the zombie army, it’s purely by-the-book found footage numbers for the remainder of the running time.” Popcorn Pictures
” …poorly lit scenes where the camera flickers and shakes without focusing on anything isn’t terrifying, scary or moody – it’s irritating and lazy, offering nothing and hammering home the fact that the film is totally devoid of anything actually worth looking at as there are no decent kills to speak of.” Gary Collinson, Flickering Myth
” …it’s difficult to feel empathy with the characters by the end of the film. You don’t feel their trauma or even their grief-stricken panic because of the irritating camera movements. And this is topped by a mediocre explanation of the curse and what they should do to end it.” Simret Cheema-Innis, Horror Talk
“Even if we are too set aside the found footage inconsistencies, the film does not fair well. What starts as a good story quickly unravels due to a myriad of factors spanning from cinematographic direction and nonsensical plot elements, to poor pacing and unbalanced acting.” Michael Steinberg, Found Footage Critic
” When you think “found footage” horror flicks you expect some unsteady camera angles and framing, but here things become so unstable it is barely watchable. Camera glitches flash in and out far too often that at times a single image cannot even be decoded.” Michelle Moore, Close-Up Film
Main cast and characters:
- Ray Panthaki … Marcus – Cryptic; 28 Days Later
- Robert Bladen … Brian
- Kacey Clarke … Amanda [as Kacey Barnfield]
- Ben Shafik … Daz
- Eva Solveig … Joanna
- Philip Barantini … Liam
- Marco Gambino … Strange Man
