Rammbock: Berlin Undead

And now weighing it a mighty one hour, one minute and thirty five seconds (including credits) we have Rammbock: Berlin Undead a brilliant albeit short foray into the zombie genre. In case it wasn't obvious from the title this is a German movie just to clear that up.

It's refreshing in the modern horror climate where so many films are seeking to emulate Twilight or going down the torture porn route that good simple movies like Rammbock still exist. The story itself is sort of survival horror love story. The main character Michael comes to Berlin to give his ex girlfriend back her keys and hopefully get back together. When he gets to her apartment he is almost immediately attacked by a handy man doing repairs and inadvertently rescued by his assistant Harper. From there on it goes straight up survival horror as the two of them together with the other residents of the tenement try to defend their home. There are other romantic sub plots in the film and they all tie together to highlight different parts or types of relationships.
There are only a handful of characters and some are more developed than others because of the time constraints but there's enough of each to get a feel for them so that some of the twists are obvious before they happen.

For what looks what a pretty low budget movie the effects are well done and the survival aspect of a zombie apocalypse are well highlighted by the scarcity of food and some brilliant use of household items to make weapons and tools.
Some purists might dislike the use of the 28 Days Later style zombies especially because the claustrophobic nature of the setting really don't call for it but there are reasons for using them as well so either one would have been equally effective with some minor changes to the plot and/or setting.

As I said at the start this is a relatively short film but that works in it's favour because it let's it do what it needs to without over staying it's welcome or adding unnecessary padding so it's well worth checking out of you're a fan of the genre.