Episode 386: Code Red (2013)

A bizarre horse dick of a Bulgarian (country 45 baby!) zombie film that starts brilliantly before collapsing into absolute diabolical nonsense. The WW2 openng section, set during Stalingrad, is brutal, tense and genuinely exciting. Hans, played by Valeri Yordanov, is easily the highlight as he battles advancing Russians, rescues wounded comrades and eventually faces zombies created by a mysterious chemical weapon. I’d happily watch an entire film about Hans trying to survive. Maybe someone should make it. Then we jump to the modern day, and everything falls apart. Paul Logan plays an American weapons inspector using an alias, despite the Bulgarians not knowing who he is, with all the charisma of a wooden plank, surrounded by dreadful Bulgarian villains, terrible acting, awful CGI, shaky cinematography, constant rubbish music. Although the zombie makeup and weaponry was pretty good. The plot involves biochemical genocide, secret weapons, military cover-ups by a dodgy Bulgarian moustache and his brothel owner business partner and a seemingly endless repetition of “CODE RED.” I think the final count was a dozen repeats of the title. Everyone got a shot at the titular line. Zombies overrun a Bulgarian town, people make spectacularly stupid decisions, a lot of fucking stupid, a really annoying stupid child and the film eventually just… ends. They literally stop filming and just go with stills. Did they run out of film? 1/10 for the modern-day mess, but Hans saves it from total disaster. Final score: 4.5/10. I'd love to hear from my dear listeners. Recommend a zombie movie or show I haven't covered, or some on and chat all things zeke. Or just like and share.