The Dead 2: India

After a very brief exchange at some undisclosed harbor that quickly brushes off the need for a detailed explanation — an Indian man was bitten while in Africa during a virus outbreak — 'The Dead 2' jumps into zombie pandemonium in a matter of a few minutes. The same night loved ones mourn the passing of that man, he returns with a gang of the walking dead already assembled. The scene is so nicely done and well-developed that it's nearly beautiful to watch, not so much the blood, guts and agonizing screams as the camerawork, the cinematography, and the rhythmic editing. The dead slowly creep from the shadows, dressed in funeral garb, with crystal-blue eyes that shine brilliantly from the frightful darkness. Even prior to that, the cinematography of Jon Ford, who also serves as co-writer and co-director, is a stylish and tasteful display of dazzling elegance that deliberately contradicts the plot's core of impending apocalypse.

This is one of the better and more impressive aspects of the sequel, which sees the Ford brothers returning to what has grown into a worldwide phenomenon for genre fans and zombie junkies. But as is always the case, the follow-up suffers from the sequel curse, where the second feature is simply no match to the first. In fact, the storyline is much of the same — nearly identical, to be perfectly honest. Two complete strangers and polar opposites in every way imaginable must travel through a desert landscape overrun with reanimated corpses and grow to be close friends over the course of their perilous journey. At the same time, the nice twist to the Ford flicks, which amusingly function as restrained love letters to George A. Romero's 'Living Dead' series and the classic plodding zombie, is that the privileged white man is the foreign stranger on unfamiliar land and whose survival is dependent on someone else.

Here, that man is played by British actor Joseph Millson of '24: Live Another Day' fame, doing an excellent job as American electrical engineer Nicholas Burton. Working on wind turbines in India, mayhem rapidly ensues around him the morning he receives news his girlfriend Ishani (Meenu Mishra) is pregnant, a surprise announcement not joyously welcomed by her somewhat narrow-minded, sectarian father (Sandip Datta Gupta). That same night, he rescues the cleverly resourceful Javed (Anand Krishna Goyal) from a horde of the glassy-eyed dead, and the two decide to make the 300-mile pilgrimage across sun-scorched Indian deserts. It doesn't take much to see part of the homage to Romero's dead franchise is the sibling filmmakers using zombie catastrophe for a larger metaphor. For Nicholas, a reason to celebrate also marks the end of the world as he knows it while his little companion affords him the opportunity to confront his doubts, demons and discover he can be a good father.

'The Dead 2: India' plays much like its predecessor, including stunning panoramic photography of the desert landscapes with spectacular detail, but the Ford brothers manage to provide just enough style and uniqueness to still feel like a follow-up all of its own. Of course, the plot comes with a few trappings and drawbacks which hinder its constructed reality  —vehicles conveniently not starting or ruining so as to force our leads to walk, bullets seem endless despite taking note of seeming low and the narrative is predictable in spite of a final emotional twist. Nonetheless, the sequel remains and should rank as one of the best zombie features in recent memory. While other movies either go for over-the-top humor ('Cockneys vs. Zombies') or focus more on the gore over an engaging plot, the Ford brothers' films are a breath of fresh air, with thoughtful, appealing stories amongst the gruesome, gory details.

The Blu-ray: Vital Disc Stats

Starz/Anchor Bay Entertainment brings 'The Dead 2: India' to Blu-ray on a Region A locked, BD25 disc inside a blue eco-cutout case. At startup, viewers are taken straight to the main menu with full-motion clips and music.