Scary Movies: World War Z

Thanks for this review go to our guest reviewer, the lovely and perceptive Corinne Dion! Corinne has interests in horror and opera, among other things, and will be providing occasional reviews on this site!

World War Z, an action horror film that premiered in 2013, is based on a book of the same name from 2006. The movie is about a zombie pandemic that threatens to destroy the entire human species, and the role of one man who may be able to stop it. Brad Pitt plays that man, a father and former NATO investigator named Gerry. After the beginning scenes in downtown Philadelphia and New Jersey, when Gerry must use his wits to keep his family alive at the outset of the zombie outbreak, he is unexpectedly rescued by helicopter and offered safety for his family on a U.S. Navy ship (as all the continents are being overrun by the zombie takeover) by his former NATO boss. This offer of safe harbor for his family is contingent on Gerry doing what he used to do for NATO — fixing global issues.

Gerry begrudgingly agrees to risk his life and venture into the unknown world of the zombie apocolpyse in order to keep his family safe. The plan is for him to discover the origin of the zombie virus, thus hopefully allowing for the creation of antivirus. With the assistance of NATO and the U.S. military, Gerry travels the world–being airlifted into and out of South Korea, Jerusalem, and eventually Cardiff– hoping to find the source or the origin of the zombie virus.

It becomes apparent during Gerry’s travels that not only is the source or trigger of the virus not the cure, but that finding a weakness or Achilles heel for the virus is preferable. When he arrives in Israel, it is the only major country that seems safe from the virus due to the country’s defensive/protective stance after years of historical attacks, but it turns out that even that country is not safe from the zombie takeover. Gerry must flee Israel with the assistance of an Israeli soldier assigned to help him, as Israel is invaded by hordes of zombies climbing over its protective walls. However, Gerry’s visit to Israel is at least fruitful as it is there that he learns, after watching zombies attack Israelis, that there were some people in Israel that the zombies have no interest in eating/destroying. Gerry speculates that these particular Israelis are ignored by the zombies because they appeared to be sickly.

Gerry’s new theory of sickly humans repelling the zombies proves to be instrumental when Gerry gets to the WHO research facility in Wales, U.K. Almost impossibly, the WHO research facility there is half-operable with some humans remaining working, despite the other half of the facility being overtaken by about eighty “dormant” zombies. The audience learns from the WHO scientists (who educate Gerry on this) that when zombies have no stimuli, i.e., humans to prey upon and eat, they go into a quiet, almost hibernating posture. This does not prove to be an important factor in solving the zombie issue, but rather an interesting sidenote.

Gerry explains to the WHO employees his theory that being ill enough allows a certain camouflage from the zombies and may serve to help save humanity. The WHO employees debate with Gerry on the viability of making people ill to save them. But it seems nobody can otherwise solve the zombie issue, so they eventually agree to help Gerry inject himself with a deadly but curable pathogen to test his theory.

Will Gerry’s theory work or will the dormant zombies wake up and eat him? Even if they don’t, will he be able to be cured of the disease he’s been injected with? And will all this be enough to save humanity and get Gerry back to his family?

World War Z (2013)
Story/Plot/Characters–Not sure that Brad Pitt’s mission of traveling the zombie infested world to discover the origin of the virus really makes a lot of sense, but it gets him on the move for an adventure that’s fast-paced, suspenseful, and takes you lots of interesting places. Sort of a James Bond horror. Not especially deep and somewhat disjointed but A-list acting. (2.5 points)
Special Effects–The big-budget effects are impressive and believable, bringing a worldwide zombie invasion to life. (2 points)
Scariness— Some very tense scenes but overall not especially scary. I give it an extra half point for the zombie outbreak on the plane, an effective and frightening scene. (1 point)
Atmosphere/Freakiness— The fast-moving zombies are a little freaky, as is their penchant for climbing over each other to scale walls, reach helicopters, etc. But overall not a very atmospheric film, at least the kind of Gothic or isolated atmosphere that makes for a good horror film. (.5 points)
Total=6 points (Pretty Good)

Definitely entertaining but disjointed and parts of the plot don’t really make sense. Succeeds more on the action level than the horror level.