War of the Dead (I) (2011) User Reviews

War of the ... sense?

[kosmasp · 5/10 · 6 May 2012]

This movie does everything a B-movie needs to do, to get your attention. It's pretty trashy, it's pretty out there (who cares about historical accuracy anyway, right? ;o) ) and it does have some extreme ideas and still some decent acting (all judged by the limitations of budget of course, don't compare it to a blockbuster). If that sounds intriguing to you, than do not mind the silly name of the movie (though maybe the silly name prepares you somewhat), but do watch the movie and just enjoy it as it is meant to be.

Having said that, if you can't fathom the idea of mistakes, ridiculous behaviour, OTT acting or OTT special effects at times, plus some explicit scenes of violence, than you might want to stay clear of this. It is not a great movie by any sense, but it will entertain you, if you let it.

Could have been better

[pundit-1 · 4/10 · 9 July 2012]

This is a combination war story and horror film that could have been better than it was. The suspenseful and creepy atmosphere is there along with plenty of action to keep you from losing your attention. The acting was fair and perhaps it could have been better.

The story however doesn't explain or go into much detail about the secret sinister experiments that were conducted in the bunker. This I feel should have been elaborated more which would have improved the story quite a bit making it far more interesting than it was.

This is one movie that at first seems to be promising but later on lets you down with disappointment. One can only feel afterwards that this movie could have been better than it was. It had all the potential to be a 1st rate horror film.

Where Horror Meets Action

[gavin6942 · 5/10 · 30 April 2013]

A platoon of American and Finnish soldiers is driven deep into a Russian forest where its Captain discovers a terrifying secret.

When produced in 2007, this was the most expensive film ever made in Lithuania. What does that mean? Since I do not know how many films are produced in Lithuania, and I have no idea what the budget was, it is hard to say. The budget must have been at least as much as Uwe Boll spends, though, because it looks like one of his movies.

Not that this is a bad film, but it is more action than horror. So if you like movies where guys shoot at each other for 80 minutes, you might dig this. If you would rather see horror with ghosts or chainsaws, this is not going to be your cup of tea.

Personally, I lost interest in it really quickly.

Fast paced World War II 'zombie' action.

[amesmonde · 7 June 2012]

A platoon of British, American and Finnish soldiers come head to head with unstoppable zombie-like soldiers. Aided by a Russian grunt they must fight for survival.

Despite some over used slow-motion and unfitting sound effects War of the Dead director Marko Mäkilaakso delivers a wonderfully atmospheric World War II action 'zombie' film.

The film has pace, moving from one location to the next through bunkers, trenches, air shafts, forests and there's plenty of gun-play and fights. The effects are modest and well executed and the sets are perfectly dressed, the location shoot gives it an edge. Writers Mäkilaakso and Barr B. Potter include some zombie hallmarks an empty house under siege, a graveyard, shots to the head but the antagonists share more with 28 Day/Weeks Later's infected and Outpost's theme. War of the Dead expands the Nazi super soldiers angel further including some fast moving, stealthy, post experimental and 'infected' soldiers.

Reminiscent of The Bunker, Death Watch, Dog Soldiers and the aforementioned to name a few this latest addition includes some great worn looking actors including Antti Reini, the reliable and talented Andrew Tiernan (who also starred in the The Bunker) as Capitan Martin Stone. UK viewers may recognise ITV's Bill - Mark Wingett. Supporting leads Samuel Vauramo as the emotional Kolya and Mikko Leppilampi as Lieutenant Laakso are effective enough. Notable is the only female Magdalena Górska and Jouko Ahola who is perfectly cast as the super soldier Captain Niemi.

It lacks that slow foreboding feel synonymous with zombie films in a bid to be original. In addition, the mix of genres doesn't work as well for this WW2 predominately action, chiller as it should due to the thin script. Nevertheless, it's a solid piece of entertainment packed with action and an obligatory nihilistic ending with a twist.

Utterly terrible

[pincushion-581-874440 · 2/10 · 23 January 2013]

Yet again another staggeringly bad entry under the zombie banner. The movie has zero character development which leaves the viewer with nothing to care about. The writers should have watched predator or at least the first 15 minutes, it's a master class in how to set up the protagonists. Add to this the thinnest plot imaginable and you really are left with something you purely just stare at for 90 minutes.

This means all that is left are the action sequences. I was often left wondering what the hell was going on and who was killing who. Action scenes were messily shot and in between you were given little more motive than let's drive this car over there to the next scene. The director clearly had been brushing up on his band of brothers and private Ryan as the film does mimic their look but only to a degree. The scene from Ryan where the Jewish soldier and German soldier wrestle over the knife was practically lifted wholesale and chucked in, laughable.

These were not zombies, Nazi or otherwise. More like mutants.

To address the "if you love zombie movies, you'll love this" or genre lovers (zombie or horror). I ask you this, why would you like or love this? It's terrible. I love zombies and horror, so much that this film irritated me. You may love zombies too but if you rate this at all you also simply like awful films too. That's fine but this particular film is a disservice to an already struggling genre. Avoid this watch Dead Snow.

Should have been a 15 minute short film on YouTube.

[krachtm · 4/10 · 27 April 2013]

The plot: American and Finnish troops run up against Nazi zombies during World War II.

This was not an absolutely terrible movie, but it was still pretty annoyingly bad. The characters were basically interchangeable, and it was even worse during the action sequences, because they were shot so poorly that I couldn't even tell who was fighting whom. Unfortunately, the movie feels like a meth addict did all the camera work and editing. The plot and dialogue are about as bad as you're expecting, but the SFX are far more disappointing. Nobody really expects good plot or dialogue from their direct-to-video, low budget zombie movies -- especially when they're rated this low -- but they do tend to expect a certain minimum level of gore. However, thanks to the horrible camera work and editing, you can't really see much of the SFX or make-up anyway. There just wasn't enough story to stretch this out to feature length, necessitating lots of terrible action scenes. This really should have been edited down to the best few scenes, with a little bit of setup, and uploaded to YouTube.

Recommended only to people who like mindless action movies.

Boring...but I've seen SO much worse...

[AndyVanScoyoc · 5/10 · 20 February 2019]

Not bad. Not good, but for free on Amazon Prime, definitely worth a watch.

Just don't expect much.

Typical, "try to make you care about the characters," attempt, but there's just not enough substance to the story to warrant it.

Not sure what purpose the girl was supposed to serve. She was a non/wasted character, really.

Honestly not bad. Just go in with your eyes open and your expectations low and you might actually enjoy it.

Bore of the Dead.

[BA_Harrison · 1/10 · 4 October 2014]

War Of The Dead is further proof that I'll watch any old tosh if it features the potentially awesome combo of Nazis and zombies. A US/Lithuanian/Italian co-production, this shoddy mess of a movie sees a platoon of American and Finnish soldiers come up against the results of a German 'anti-death' experiment: snarling super-zombies. What follows is a virtually plot less series of dull battle scenes between the living and the undead, all of it shot at night, most of it very hard to discern, and none of it in the slightest bit scary or exciting, despite the urgent music and frantic camera-work trying to convince otherwise.

The only remotely interesting aspect about the whole thing—a strange clockwork device stolen by one of the soldiers—is subsequently ignored without any explanation of its relevance or purpose.

According to IMDb's trivia, James Van Der Beek was originally slated to play Captain Stone. When Van Der Beek bails on a project, you know you're in trouble

Better than I thought it would be.

[kittenkongshow · 5/10 · 21 January 2016]

I read the reviews after I'd picked this up and held little hope for it, Apart from the Dead Snow films I find Nazi Zombie flicks usually leave a lot to be desired (Still get suckered in by them tho').

There have been lots of 'Not historically Accurate' on here...But it's a Zombie film....erm...Last time I checked Zombies are fictional...

It held my attention (not always easy) and on as a pure 'Popcorn' film It's rather fun. If you want an hour and a half of undemanding entertainment it's worth a shot.

The audio (Dialogue) was low...I put subtitles on to make sure I didn't miss anything (Not that the Dialogue told you anything!) The film looks great colour wise too.

They're coming to get you, sergeant...

[paul_haakonsen · 6/10 · 29 May 2012]

I found "War of the Dead" by sheer coincidence. I had never heard about it prior to accidentally stumbling on it. And the cover of the DVD made me pick it up and give it a go, as I do enjoy zombie movies. And zombie Nazis, well it just doesn't get any better!

Now, I will say that "War of the Dead" is unlike most other zombie movies that I have seen in my life. It has that whole "Band of Brother" / "Saving Private Ryan" feel to it, with the impressions that you are right there in the action with the soldiers. I liked that about the movie, because it is a cool thing. And taking place during World War II, but with zombies running around, well that is just an interesting concept. Sure it is used in other movies, such as "Outpost" and "Død Snø" ("Dead Snow") for example, but still it worked out quite well in "War of the Dead".

One thing did puzzle me, and that was why Americans were there helping out the Finnish soldiers. That just didn't strike me as very plausible. But hey, it is just a fictional movie. Moving on, some of the accents throughout the movie were also a bit on the less impressive side.

Effect-wise, then I found "War of the Dead" to be quite good. The movie had a heap of action with guns and explosions. But for a zombie movie, then the gore and actual mayhem caused by the zombies was a bit tame. Especially because the zombies were agile and running around, a feature in zombie movies that I am not a fan of. (Yeah, I am a Romero-zombie fan to the very core!) And also the zombies seemed to be capable of some brain activity, as they were able to do intricate fighting and blocking in brawling. And when the zombies jumped down from those tall trees, then I was ready to find something else to watch (but I didn't, I gave "War of the Dead" a fair chance). What was that all about? So now zombies climb 10-15 meters up into trees to hide and ambush those coming past? That was just too ridiculous.

The feeling of the atmosphere in the movie was really one of the better things that was working to pull the movie up. Because it was a great mixture of "Band of Brothers" but mixed with the gritty places and narrow corridors that you had in the first two original "Resident Evil" games. And that worked out so well, because it really put on a brooding sense of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I think that the people they had put in the movie in the various roles were actually doing good jobs with their roles. And it was refreshing to see a movie with no familiar faces popping up. The one who put on the most impressive and memorable performance in the movie was Samuel Vauramo (playing Kolya).

As for a zombie movie, then don't expect the classical Romero type zombies in the movie, and don't except to see a lot of gore and mayhem, and don't expect to see any real decomposition in the animated corpses either. So if you put these expectations aside, then "War of the Dead" is actually a good, wholesome entertaining movie from Finnish director Marko Mäkilaakso.

Avoid this ersatz zombie film.

[suite92 · 1/10 · 20 March 2014]

In World War II, Finnish troops and American troops attempt to investigate a Nazi bunker that lies inside Germany.

After spending some time with Wikipedia, I see that there was little historical support for the idea of American and Finnish troops to be operating together against the Germans. America was the ally of the Soviet Union. Finland had been fighting the Russians off and on for about 150 years. During most of World War II, the Finns were allied with the Nazis based in Norway and Germany against their longtime enemy, Russia.

So, the setup of the film is nonsense.

The 'action' scenes are boring or inept.

As a zombie film (the bunker in Germany supposedly contained experiments to re-animate the dead), this is a bust. The main clue that a walking biped was a zombie was 'did we not already kill that one?' or words to that effect. A few zombies had glazed over eyes. The gloomy, heart wrenching threat one expects from the Zombie Apocalypse environment was absent.

-----Scores-----

Cinematography: 3/10 Dark. Poor camera angles. Colour palettes so reduced as to be only slightly different than greyscale.

Sound: 4/10 Horrible accents. Background music was not an asset.

Acting: 0/10 Terrible performances.

Screenplay: 0/10 There was a screenplay? Where was the exposition of motivations? There was a lot of stilted dialog that generated confusion. The joint group just drifted from one disaster to the next. The film seemed more of an elimination derby of nameless characters that were impossible to care anything about.

Love WW2 zombies

[berg-74532 · 8/10 · 30 January 2019]

Love everything about movie acting great, writing great, direction very good, but sound was a nightmare I have never had to adjust the volume as much as this and maybe the zombies would have been better if they couldn't fly. But As far as zombie war movies this is slightly better than Outpost but not as good Dead Snow. I know not to read the other reviews because everyone likes to seem smarter or pick a part small details but this is a zombie movie not studio prestige picture it doesn't have to make sense. If you like zombies this is fun if you don't then don't watch.

honest, accurate review for 'war of the dead'

[adamcarlton · 6/10 · 24 May 2012]

the best way to describe this movie is that it's a B movie coated with A movie presentation. the special effects and the acting are the only things really holding it back from its true potential. the acting or dialogue is at times so bad and the accents so inconsistent that you wonder why the director didn't just choose to re-shoot some of the scenes and put a little more pressure on his actors. the special effects are sometimes good, but sometimes bad. this is made clear at the start of the movie when some men are gunned down in a hallway yet there is no sign of any bullet penetration or even sound effects here and there. some men just fall to the ground, we'r shown close ups of some weird nazi character grinning as he walks out of a lit-up doorway like a freaking angel or something.

the best thing about this movie is its presentation. the cinematography and camera-work is pretty 'up there'. like one of the quotes on the DVD cover states, it is 'like an episode of band of brothers with zombies'. and yeah, it is; just with much less impressive actors.

the story is unoriginal yet interesting enough to warrant your time and it looks like a lot of effort went into this little B movie. the characters all look fantastic (just like any soldier out of saving private ryan or band or brothers) and at times gunfights and explosions are convincing. its just a shame the acting and occasional iffy effects let it down.

so in summary:

presentation - 8 special makeup effects & sound - 6 acting - 5 script - 6

overall - 6/10

War Of The Dead

[dukeakasmudge · 4/10 · 5 September 2016]

I prefer zombie movies where the zombies are walkers & HATE the movies where they're runners.I was hoping the zombies in War Of The Dead were going to be walkers but I guess I should've known.I know I probably would've been more into the movie if they were.Hopefully someday, somebody will make a zombie war movie where the zombies are walkers.If it's been done recently I know nothing about it.Surprisingly though, it worked in War Of The Dead.I couldn't imagine the zombies being any other way.War Of The Dead was a non stop action/horror flick.Something was always happening here & there & the zombies being like they were, just added to it.I was into it right from the start till the very end.Still it's not something I'd ever watch again or want to add to my movie collection but if somebody was thinking about watching it I wouldn't tell them not to.If they were thinking about buying it, I'd tell them not to unless they got it super cheap or at least watched it 1st

Undead Story

[Tweetienator · 4/10 · 30 July 2019]

I would like to rate War of the Dead higher - production etc. are of good quality (for a B movie) but the trouble with War of the Dead is the storyline - too repetitive and the longer the movie rolls on the more it just gets boring. Like many movies of our days the trouble is not the production and acting team but the writers. Still, War of the Dead beats easy all those "dudes have some leisure time and make a zombie movie using a digi-cam and some gallons of fake blood"-movies, and could be easy a 6 or 7 - if providing a better plot. As it is, I rate 4.

Worst movie ever seen.

[cdbiams-191-340941 · 1/10 · 6 March 2020]

Totally non historical and extremely poorly done. Anyone liking this movie should immediately go to the hospital and have a lobotomy performed on them. Nothing about this movie is watchable, believable, or enjoyable. The "director" never ever learned anything about film making and the script is so poorly done that it makes "Manos the Hands of Fate" look like a best picture. Anyone associated with this film is now instantly black listed as incompetent film makers. Not one bit of this can be called "artistic expression"....more like toilet paper. And that is insulting toilet paper. Avoid...with extreme prejudice.

I'M OUT OF BULLETS!

[nogodnomasters · 3/10 · 29 December 2018]

In 1941, before the US entry into the war, a small group of US elites, including one Abraham Lincoln Brigade member to make it realistic, join up with some Finnish soldiers to travel 30 km. into Russia along the border in order to destroy a bunker. This bunker was used by the Germans to experiment on Russian soldiers. Our group does not know the details as they encounter killer zombies.

These are not your ordinary zombies. When we first see them they leap 10-20 ft out of trees to attack. I thought I was watching "Planet of the Apes" for a moment. They seem to have superhuman strength and stamina, although the film was not consistent in their portrayal of zombie abilities. Other times they get beat up in a fight like an ordinary human.

This is a fusion war and zombie movie that doesn't work like its counterparts. The ones that worked well were zombie movies with a war background. This one is more of a war movie that has zombie soldiers, not too unlike regular soldiers. Shot almost entirely at night.

Parental Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity.

Dead Movie

[dana-kellish · 3/10 · 20 June 2020]

Poor script. Mediocre acting. Terribly inconsistent. Sometimes the undead are super strong and can leak dozens of yards into the air, and sometimes they can be taken down in a fistfight. Get your zombie fix somewhere else.

War of the Dead

[hobgoblinlol · 6/10 · 10 September 2012]

This movie started out having a score of 5.9 and went down all the way to 4 sadly. Believe it or not, I did like it. The set up and the atmosphere are great. Acting is OK. And the movie has some good action scenes to keep the audience interested. And it's one of those ''Nazi zombie'' or ''War horror'' movies that I really love. But the downfall of this movie is it's story. I think this movie would have been much better if it had bigger work put into the story. Explain more about the experiments, show some flashbacks, etc. the one thing I didn't like was that the movie is VERY fast phased.

You can see that movie does not leave out character development, but it's just not enough. Needs more character development and more dialogue and more suspense.

the movie is not bad especially if you're a fan of the genre. 6/10

Nazi Zombie Action

[pathedpe · 10/10 · 23 July 2012]

Giving this a ten because it deserves higher than 4 overall

Non-stop action with good acting and a story that is believable and engaging, character developments shine brightly & you feel like you progress as a soldier with these characters as they uncover the infection/outbreak, it really quenches your thirst for soldier vs infected action and the threat level is so high that the characters barely get opportunities to rest which keeps the pace of the movie going throughout, excellently believable setting and wardrobe, and the unique infection compared to other films of the genre keep War of the Dead refreshing and interesting

A bit of a different twist

[Joel-942-144075 · 6/10 · 31 May 2012]

Bad reviews aside, if you're into zombie movies, then you'll find a nice spin to this one. First of all, it plays out as a real WWII movie - the action, drama and dialog are all what you'd expect from a basic WWII movie.

Of course though, there are Nazi zombies to fight. But the nice twist on the zombies is that they are fast-movers, and relatively intelligent in their attacks.

As far as low budget, it seems pretty high budget for a zombie movie. In the trivia it even states that this is the "Most expensive film ever produced in Lithuania." Now that may not be saying much but, the trivia also states that "The film's original title was 'Stone's War', but was changed to 'War of the Dead', after Stan Lee had suggested it." So, if Stan Lee gave it the nod, and if the Lithuanian's spent their national budget making it, it's worth a look see.

Good fun schlock

[alistairc_2000 · 7/10 · 20 May 2012]

I watched the UK premier of this title at Fright fest Scotland.

It's your basic mystery story at the start. Bad things are happening behind enemy lines. What is the cause, well with a title like War of the Dead it is easy to say its Zombies.

What I liked about this movie was that it told the same old story of dodgy dealings behind enemy lines. It does it pretty good.

The effects whilst good are below par. The movie itself looks like its a low to medium budget movie.

This is not top of the class but it is good fun for what it is.Its better than zombies of war and Armageddon of the dead.

Nazi zombie soldier don't let up

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 11 May 2020]

1941, World War II. A platoon of American and Finnish soldiers led by the two-fisted Captain Martin Stone (a fine and credible performance by Andrew Tiernan) run afoul of a squadron of seemingly unstoppable German SS soldiers who turn out to be zombies.

Writer/director Marko Makilaakso keeps the enjoyable and engrossing story hurtling along at a constant quick pace, makes nice use of the desolate locations, maintains a tough gritty tone throughout, and stages the plentiful and exciting zombie attack scenes and action sequences with rip-roaring go-for-broke brio. The sound acting by the capable cast keeps this movie humming: Jouko Ahola as the hard-nosed Captain Niemi, Samuel Vauramo as helpful local Kolya, Mikko Leppilamp as the no-nonsense Lt. Laakso, and Magdalena Gorska as the frightened Dasha. Kudos are also in order for Hannu-Pekka Vitikainen's sharp widescreen cinematography and the moody score by Neal Acree and Joel Goldsmith. But the key reason this film works like gangbusters is because it rarely lets up for a minute; it's pretty damn relentless and hence packs one hell of a ferocious punch.

Despite what many say here, I really liked the film. It's VERY atmospheric, suspenseful, and the acting is quite good. Rewatchability: Very High Blu-ray: Excellent A:9 V:9

[lathe-of-heaven · 7/10 · 22 July 2015]

You know, it's almost no surprise that I come here after writing a review about the recent 'THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN', and that piece of $hit gets like a 5.8 rating, and this film which I felt was LIGHT YEARS more entertaining and technically much better made and the acting was EXPONENTIALLY better, and it has a frigg'n rating of 4.1. WTF...???

I honestly found this movie to be very atmospheric, beautiful to look at, and for a low-budget Horror film, surprisingly well put together and directed. I was even more impressed by the acting, which although not Oscar material, I think for a film like this the director REALLY was quite adept at bringing out the very best from his actors.

Sure, true Zombie lovers and aficionados would most likely find this movie VERY lame, slow, and uneventful, with VERY little gore or 'Zombie-like' visuals. This is definitely ***NOT*** your usual Zombie-Gore fest. BUT... not really being a real Zombie fan myself, I found the mood, look, and technical aspects of the film to be quite good and entertaining. I REALLY liked the Mystery aspect of it, like when it showed you glimpses of these odd-looking, mechanical amulets, which made you wonder what they were for and what they had to do with the story. And, I really dug the place they find, with it's cool retro-automated mechanical effects. And, there IS a lot of War Action that I thought was done pretty well.

All and all a VERY simple story with not a hell of a lot to it, but I genuinely feel that it was really well done and most entertaining. A LOT more than what all these dismissive Dickweed Numbnuts here are saying ...

There's more to these Nazi's than expected in War of the Dead

[rgblakey · 7/10 · 30 December 2012]

Thanks to shows like the Walking Dead the zombie craze is still running strong, but that also means everyone and their grandmother continue to churn out film after film in the genre. Sadly most of these films offer little new or even good for the fans. Every so often you get one that is a surprise and delivers more than expected. The latest tackles the zombie genre, but adds Nazi's to the mix in an attempt to take it somewhere unique. Can they capture the same fun that films like Dead Snow delivered or will it be another zombie film that should have stayed dead?

War of the Dead follows a platoon of soldiers on a mission to find a bunker held by Germans. On the way they come under fire and run into what seems to be undead German soldiers and soon discover just how they became this way. This film kind of came out of nowhere and ended up delivering a fun addition to the genre. It plays very similar to the great werewolf film Dog Soldiers, but with the addition of Nazi's and zombies. Over the years it has become pretty obvious that the addition of Nazi's to anything seems to make it better. They are just the perfect villains, but you make them zombies and you get something even better. This film offers very little in regards to story, but isn't really necessary to its overall execution. There is very little character development and isn't needed, instead you are just given almost nonstop Nazi zombie killing action. What makes this film work even better is that they took it serious making the action and story more effective. They seemed to stick pretty close to using almost all practical effects bringing some great looking zombies to life alongside plenty of gore.

This was a fun addition to the zombie genre and is sure to please any fan. Some will be put off by the lack of meat to the story, but how many of these types of films do you really watch in hope of a great story as opposed to some great zombie action? Of course not, just sit down and get ready for a non-stop action gore fest that will surely satisfy the zombie fanatics everywhere.