Original Review by Alan Rogers
Zone of The Dead is a Serbian zombie film from 2009 that appears to so bad that it was released quickly on DVD in 2010, having undergone a name change to Apocalypse of The Dead. A group of officials are charged with transporting a prisoner cross country to be transferred to Britain. Unfortunately, they end up being holed up in a police station, surrounded by the local population who have been turned into flesh-eating zombies after the release of a green mist that was being transported by train during part of a “military exercise”. What follows is a standard by-the-numbers zombie film that isn’t helped by the fact that the majority of the cast do not have English as their first language and either speak their (English) dialogue badly or don’t even try to deliver their lines in English and have to have their lines dubbed (badly). Into this mix is added Italian-born composer Stefano Caprioli who comes up with a rock-based soundtrack full of pulsing percussion and grungy guitars that adds an energy to the film that the actors fail to generate. But the price for this energy is that the score perhaps lacks the thematic material a listener might hope to hear. (From a zombie movie?)
The album opens with an interesting rhythm-based track (“Danger”) that’s predominantly built around a short motif that gets the full grungy guitar treatment. This relatively short cue (it is the shortest of the score clocking in at just over 2 minutes) is made up of short sections of the motif being played by various instruments: a low synthy sound, the grungy guitar, grungy guitar and adrenaline-fuelled drum kit, a short ambient section, etc. These sections are all joined together to form the cue. This arrangement of apparently stitching together small segments of music is repeated throughout the album. This gives the overall feel of the album as being a series of library cues from which the film-makers can select the appropriate music. Need a energetic rock-based piece that’s got loads of guitar to cover a fight sequence? Sure: here’s a piece at the beginning of “Energy” that should do. Need the music instead with an emphasis on drums? No problem: “Escape” has a short section that you can use. Want some quiet, emotional sounding music with acoustic guitar? The latter half of “When I Think About You” will do the trick. Although these tracks seem to be lots of ideas joined together, the actual music in the segments and how they are put together are actually quite interesting to listen to. Read the rest of this entry »
