THE DEAD AND THE DAMNED II (2014)

[indianasmith]

I watch a lot of zombie movies, and recently those have ranged from the below average to the truly abysmal.
A couple of years ago I watched a pretty decent zombie western movie called THE DEAD AND THE DAMNED which I really enjoyed.
So when I saw THE DEAD AND THE DAMNED II at Hastings yesterday I figured I would give it a spin.  I'm glad I did.
The movie begins after the zombie apocalypse has gone down, and the land is filled with shambling undead.  The zombie makeups
range from very good to rather cheesy, and these are classic Romero zombies - slow, shambling, relentless, easy to outrun but
numerous and relentless.  The movie traces the adventures of a group of survivors as their paths slowly converge towards the Pacific
Ocean - the deaf-mute girl who travels alone because every male survivor she meets wants to rape her, the Army colonel mouring
the loss of his wife and daughter, and the former salesman who struggles to keep his optimism and faith in God alive in these horrible
conditions.
   At first I saw no connection at all to the previous movie, and the opening scene really made no sense at all to me - but they managed
to tie it up neatly and put a bow around it while conveying a powerful message about mankind's ability to survive and hold onto hope in
the worst of circumstances. There were a few spots that strained the suspension of disbelief - how could a deaf girl survive so long when
she couldn't hear the undead coming? - but then again, it's a low budget zombie movie after all! I was really surprised how much I liked
this film, and highly recommend it to all zombie film fans. 4.5/5