Rating: C
Dir: John Lyde
Star: Corey Sevier, Eve Mauro, Jasen Wade, Danielle Chuchran
In some ways, it’s a wonder nobody came up with the idea of a zombie Osama bin Laden earlier. Though here, that is more the hook than the line or sinker, since Osombie only shows up at the end. The vast bulk of this follows a small (‘cos budget), multinational group of soldiers through the Afghani desert, fending off both insurgents and undeadants. They bump in to Dusty (Mears), who is in the Middle East seeking her brother, Derek (Wade, who bizarrely resembles Nicholas Brody from Homeland), who shipped out on an independent mission to take out bin Laden, not believing the official story of his death. Of course, he’s right to do so, though he’s unaware of the zombies roaming the area, following the release of a modified chemical weapon, which was only supposed to drive Al Qaeda out of their cave hiding places.
The new version is being used by them to make life difficult for Western forces, using captured and volunteer locals for fodder [as is pointed out, no real difference in strapping on an explosive vest and becoming a zombie for Allah], in addition to the previously mentioned resurrection of their leader. It’s okay as a time-passer, though as noted, the actual zombie Bin Laden is little more than a poster hook, and most of the running time is soldiers versus random zeds, resulting in a lot of digital head-shots, and one of the soldiers (whom Chris reckoned looked a lot like George Michael) taking his shirt off repeatedly.
The rest is largely a selection of zombie cliches i.e. the group member who gets bitten and turned – I also note the remarkable stealth ability of these undead, who are able to sneak up on professional warriors, whenever it’s necessary to the plot. Some of the banter between the team members is lightly amusing, though it has to be said, they’re far from convincing as soldiers – particularly “Tomboy” (Chuchran) with her ninja sword. While the body count may be high, the sameness of the kills starts to grind before the end, and it’s there that the film goes through the thin ice of belief, into the chilly waters of frankly ludicrous which lurk beneath. Somewhat of a wasted idea, yet just about skates by on the strength of that idea. If only they’d pitted a zombie bin Laden against an undead George Bush…