Dead Season (2012)

(In French, On Cable TV, June 2021) While set in sunny Florida, Dead Season is in many ways as bleak and repellent as most other low-end American zombie films. Picking up a year after the initial zombie uprising, it follows a pair of survivors as they make their way to an island where other survivors have established a small colony. But of course (we’ve seen this movie before), other humans are just as big a threat as the undead, and it doesn’t take much time for this colony to fall apart. There’s an attempt at a mildly shocking plot point midway through, but it’s not particularly effective either at being interesting or gross—the film makes a big deal out of it, while viewers are liable to shrug and wonder what the fuss—this is a zombie horror film, and we already expect the worst. It certainly doesn’t contribute much to Dead Season’s overall impression: it’s dull and dreary, and rather obvious in the way it unfolds. Writer-director Adam Deyoe doesn’t bring much to the genre, even if he avoids the rather deep bottom of the barrel that zombie movies often have to offer. By the end of Dead Season, the ending is a relief to viewers that it’s finally over.