Dead Rising: Endgame   Starring: Jesse Metcalfe, Keegan Connor Tracy, Dennis Haysbert, Marie Avgeropoulos and Jessica Harmon Distributor: Manga Entertainment RRP: £TBC Certificate: 18 Release Date: 31 October 2016

After narrowly escaping a zombie quarantine, investigative journalist Chase Carter can’t shake the guilt of having left a trusted colleague behind. Now, as he heads back into the quarantined zone to expose the architects of the outbreak, he will uncover a secret more evil than he could have imagined. Guarding this secret is General Lyons (Dennis Haysbert, The Unit, 24), a ruthless military officer determined to silence anyone who threatens the government’s fatal plans. With mass annihilation looming, Chase - along with a group of dubious allies - slices, hacks and bludgeons his way through the zombie hordes that plague every corner of the abandoned city...

Based on the worldwide smash-hit video game series, Dead Rising: Endgame is the sequel to Dead Rising: Watchtower. While it's not essential that you've seen the previous movie, it does help to flesh out some of the characters.

The acting is middling to poor, with only Dennis Haysbert delivering a believable character, but then a lot of the problems are with the script. Some of the dialogue feels like it was written by a first time script writer who was pitching a poor Eastenders script. This is surprising, given that it was penned by Michael Ferris (Terminator Salvation) and Tim Carter (Mortal Kombat: Legacy). I didn't invest in the characters at all and to be honest I ended up rooting for the zombies just so that it would all be over quickly.

Another problem could be the fact that the zombie apocalypse genre is so saturated at the moment that it's very hard to bring anything new to the game. The zombies don't make a huge impact here and the one new addition are super charged running zombies (which have been done to death in games and other movies).

The only scene that really caught my attention was the zombie fight sequence. And while the computer manipulated cuts take you out of the action slightly, it was still an impressive sequence which almost came close to capturing the frenzy of the game series.

Extras are pretty dull - more like teasers for those who haven't seen the movie than in depth looks at the production. We get From Game to Screen (2 min, 25 sec); Making the Weapons (1 min, 16 sec); Bringing Zombies to"Life" (53 sec); Lights, Zombies, Action! (1 min, 18 sec); Who is Chase Carter? (1 min, 11 sec); Who is Jordan Blair? (48 sec); Who is Jill Ekland? (59 sec); Who is Sandra Lowe? (59 sec); and Trailer (1 min, 42 sec).

There's not much of substance here, but fans of the previous movie may find something of merit.

3

Nick Smithson