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[BD Review] ‘War of the Dead’ A Grimy, Action-Packed Zombie Fix
When eventually ranked in the annals of zombie war flicks, War of the Dead will earn a place somewhere alongside the gritty militarism of Romero’s Day of the Dead. But not really. Marko Mäkilaakso’s debut feature certainly delivers what it promises––it‘s a grimy, action-packed zombie war spectacle…that creaks under the weight of a silly-ass screenplay. It may not be a perfect film, but if you’ve got a jones for zombies in uniform, War of the Dead has got your fix.
When a squad of Allied soldiers assaults a Russian bunker during WWII, they inadvertently stumble into a horde of ravenous zombies, the result of some heinous Nazi experimentation. And these aren’t the moaning, lumbering undead of Romero’s world; Mäkilaakso’s zombies sprint, snarl, and have more than a passing familiarity with hand-to-hand combat. It’s like Ip Man meets Dead Snow.
The assault on the Russian bunker decimates the squad, and they mourn each other’s deaths with enough hand-wringing melodrama to overstuff a 1950s B-grade war picture. The cheesy dialogue frequently threatens to mortar the entire movie, but Mäkilaakso always manages to redeem these missteps with some sweet, sweet zombie action.
As our remaining heroes are compelled to infiltrate a second, super secret bunker (spoiler alert?), the zombies come at them in waves, like swarming insects. There are few solo encounters in War of the Dead; these wartime zombies are all or nothing. If you hope to stand a chance, you’d better brush up on your jujitsu.
After scaring up a strong theatrical run, Oddity director Damian McCarthy’s Hokum heads home to Digital this week.
Settle in for a spooky supernatural chiller as Hokum arrives on all Digital platforms to rent or own beginning June 2, followed by a Blu-ray/4K Ultra HD Combo and DVD release on August 11, 2026.
Adam Scott (“Severance”) stars in Hokum as reclusive novelist Ohm Bauman. When he retreats to a remote Irish inn to scatter his parents’ ashes, the staff’s tales of an ancient witch haunting the honeymoon suite take hold of his mind. Disturbing visions and a shocking disappearance draw Ohm into a nightmarish confrontation with the darkest corners of his past.
Peter Coonan (“The Alienist: Angel of Darkness”), David Wilmot (“Station Eleven”), Florence Ordesh (“Departure”), Michael Patric (“Frontier”), Will O’Connell (“Game of Thrones”), Brendan Conroy (“Bodkin”), and Austin Amelio (“The Walking Dead”) also star.
Get a peek at the upcoming physical media release below, including a few special features.
Spooky Pictures’ Roy Lee (Weapons) & Steven Schneider (Insidious) produce alongside Image Nation’s Derek Dauchy (Late Night with the Devil), Tailored Film’s Ruth Treacy, Julianne Forde, & Mairtín de Barra, and Cweature Features’ Ken Kao & Josh Rosenbaum.
I wrote in my review for Bloody Disgusting, “A quaint Irish hotel with a deeply haunted history awaits an American writer in McCarthy’s third outing, continuing his streak for folkloric tales of supernatural karma and spine-tingling terror with a dark sense of humor.”
What’s next from Damian McCarthy? He’s currently writing a haunted house movie, but recent comments suggest he may be moving into other genres beyond that upcoming project.
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