Pupi Avati's ZEDER, is a different take on the undead genre, but is not a zombie film outright. Rather than being all out 'dead rising from the graves and feeding on the flesh of the living' the film takes its time to build up tension and atmosphere, that adds a genuine sense of creepiness to the films tone. A young journalist, given a typewriter as a present from his girlfriend discovers some text written on the ink ribbon, and threw this mysterious text he uncovers a past story of a scientist called Paolo Zeder, who discovered areas of terrain that can revive the dead. The journalists investigations lead him to a group of outlaw scientists who are attempting to reconstruct these experiments in the present day. Avati clearly goes for atmosphere over gore, though there are a few scenes where we see the aftermath of some murders, the film doesn't show any bodily mutilation, and instead the films builds up tension and dread through suggestion and use of sound, and characters reactions. It's a clever and excellent choice of direction that makes ZEDER stand out as an intelligent and if slightly obscure and offbeat entry into the living dead cycle.
Review of Revenge of the Dead
