Dead Air

With a title like this you know that its gotta have something to do with zombies. 'Dead...anything' seems to be the clue these days if you want to attract that undead lovin' crowd.

After terrorists release a unknown gas into the ventilation system of an L.A. sport's arena people start acting in strange ways. We soon learn that this has happened at many public gatherings around the US. A local talk radio host begins his show by talking about paranoia then he starts recieving calls about rioting in the streets around his studio. Dismissing the calls AS paranoia initially, things quickly get out of control. The film reminds me a lot of 'Pontypool' a Canadian feature with a similar plot. Like that movie it relies heavy on talk at the beginning but unlike 'Pontypool' it has a larger budget so we actually see the zombies making trouble.

What made 'Pontypool' so great was its love of language and the way it used 'language' as something to be feared. Any terror was created in our own minds by descriptions of what was happening outside of the studio. 'Dead Air' uses conversation as only a time filler until it can release the zombie action scenes at us. At that point it becomes just another ordinary zombipalooza - chosing to utilyze the fast kind of flesh eaters because, let's admit, they are visually more exciting than the ones who shuffle. Also I am not sure if you can technically call these 'infected' zombies. They don't chew on the flesh or eat brains, they rip and tear and beat down their victims while passing on the infections.

There is a terrorism angle here that was totally out of place and for me seemed like a weak way to impart information that the filmakers felt was needed to advance the plot. Trying to cram to many ideas into a movie, especially a zombie movie is the quickes way to drain out all the fun.