DEAD SET

[2008]

Dead Set is a TV series that was five episodes long and aired every night in a row from October 27th. I don't know if any Americans are awear of the horrid boring cash cow we in the UK had to endure year after year called 'Big Brother' it plays on the term of being watched, they put in the biggest bunch of money grabbing and attention starved people into a 'house' where 'big brother' watches and monitors them and each week one of these half wits who's not deemed as popular as other half wits get the boot.

So Charlie Brooker created a cross over of Big Brother and the zombie outbreak. I've seen the show once before when it was airing and decided to re-watch and give it a review. I've only reviewed one episode as I hope people will give some British horror a go and watch it for themselves.

The footage is very official to Big Brother since E4 and Channel 4 owners of Big Brother ran this show so they even have the northern narrator and Devina McCall in on the whole thing which for us UK people gave it some real reality, our proper news reporters also made up the fake outbreak stories which you don't get in huge movies aye?

So cue the same cliche scummy people we get in Big Brother year after year, a twat, a pompous prick, a moron, a chavvy woman, a Northerner, a fatty, a tranny and just general chavvy no ones. They themselves are about as fun as paint drying to watch.

The first episode looks on the production staff and how everything is going wrong back stage with the contestants none the wiser to the hell going on outside their fake four walls. We have a main character called Kelly who is cheating on her boyfriend and works for the biggest asshole of a boss. A member of the team goes to get one of the consents mother and along the way they find a crashed car.

Now in anything with zombies being curious or good natured will get you munched and indeed we have dinner for the victims of the zombie virus. The assistant then decides to take the bloody driver towards the studio where all hell breaks loose, loads of people who have come to enjoy their awful live experience with Big Brother soon become little more then fast food.

The zombies are of the zombie lore of get bitten, die come back alive, become sprinters even though the person before becoming a zombie more then likely never  ran more then five seconds in their life kind. One gets into the production studio and it all goes to hell in a hand basket.

Soon our main girl Kelly is the only one alive and boy is she a smart female role for once, she arms herself with the biggest pair of scissors you will ever find which confuses me to why they were in an office? Anyway Kelly armed manages to take down the man she was shagging who decided to become one of the walking dead with very little guilt towards killing him but instead longs for the man she's really dating who she's been brushing off.

Oh silly human dramas~

So now everyone in the building is a zombie which includes Devina McCall and damn if you thought she was annoying BEFORE...

The contestants in the Big Brother house carry on having their petty dramas but slowly realise that Big Brother isn't watching, there is something going on and it's not good. As the airheads try figure out what is wrong Kelly is running across the courtyard with scissors. Wouldn't that be ironic if when the world has become the living dead and you fall on a pair of fucking scissors?

She gets into the house and all the zoo animals.. I mean contestants think it's all a joke, that Big Brother was trying to trick them and put either a retarded person or a crazy person in their little group to stir stuff up. One of these contestants really doesn't believe her and teases her by opening and shutting a door and of course A WILD ZOMBIE APPEARS and takes two of them out.

Kelly decides the huuuuuge pair of scisors isn't enough and gets something else to bash the zombies brains in. It's safe to say that they believe her wild claims now.

End of episode one.

Like I said there are five episodes in all and I think you can still watch them online today if not the DVD costs pretty much nothing on the likes of Amazon. This show is shot well, has all your typical zombie outbreak needs such as shaky camera, screaming, running in blind panic and much much more.

The gore is fantastic and looks just as high budget as anything Hollywood has to offer us. If your a fan of Brit horror then this one is a good one, it includes such lines as "Smells like fingering in here..."

Scares: 1/5

Gore: 4/5

Story: 2.5/5

Acting: 5/5

Over all enjoyment: 5/5

It's a good one kids.

X6XJigsawX6X