Dead Survivors (2010)

Directed by: David Bruckner | 80 minutes | horror | Actors: Michael Krug, Julia Köhler, Tino Dörner, Ida Marie Unger, Stephan König, Vitaliy Kühne, Marie Weigt, Forgó Tamás, Romy Schreiber, Heinrich Kus, Alexander Mende, Jens Nier, Falko Kleinert

‘Lights, camera, bratwurst!’ Get ready for a genuine German party with ‘Dead Survivors’, the one and only ‘Resident Evil’ rip-off with dubbing, horrific one-liners and a mountain of karate moves that will blow your mind. It could easily become the German comedy of the year, were it not for the fact that Mr Bruckner himself does not realize it…

The problem is that ‘Dead Survivors’ is not a comedy at all, but an attempt to pay homage (and that is a very friendly name) to the aforementioned survival horror game with a zero-point-zero budget. That results in a film that is horrific and genius at the same time, because we haven’t seen such good camp since the monster movies of the 50s!

In ‘Dead Survivors’ we set out with Chris Burnside, a slightly overweight semi-soldier who must escort a group of survivors to safety after a zombie plague breaks out. He’s not very good at it, because in one of the first scenes we learn that someone’s mother has been eaten by zombies because of him. For the record: the journey has yet to begin, so wish Chris good luck to his followers!

Of course it doesn’t take long before the party encounters some zombies and then the fun really starts, because Chris turns out to be not just a soldier painted with sauerkraut. No, Chris is – of course – also a martial arts expert and so in no time the first zombies are chopped up by hand, followed by a standard one-liner that you have to hear to believe how bad this one is. Add to that the fact that Chris and his cronies also get into a fight with a group of soldiers and you understand that there is enough fake blood in this film to provide an average party shop with a good annual turnover.

The question is of course how long something like this will stay fun and the good news is: quite a long time! As mentioned, David Bruckner (who also ‘wrote’ the film) completely stole the story of ‘Resident Evil’, including all the twists and revelations that were already incorporated into the game more than ten years ago (the characters even include some who bear the name of the ‘RE’ characters…). That means that in addition to zombies and crazy soldiers, you can also count on evil doctors who work for a ‘mysterious’ pharmaceutical company. Three guesses what one finds when one finally enters that old mansion. Precisely! It’s genetic experimentation, just less exciting than it once was on the Playstation.

In any case, the film especially evokes a great desire to get that classic game out again, because in everything the film is reminiscent of the ‘Resident Evil’ series. The characters, the plot, the locations, it’s all been taken over one-by-one and probably the quality of the movie alone was the reason that games developer Capcom didn’t file a lawsuit. You can therefore not accuse Capcom of the lack of a sense of humor. The only problem that remains is to give stars to this misfire of a film, because ‘Dead Survivors’ is actually too bad for words and the film does not deserve any appreciation. Based on the fun you can still experience with it, a modest 3.5 star is in order. Just don’t complain that you weren’t warned!