Film Review - Follow The Dead (2020)

In this age of fake news, various social media sites, and editing software that allows for any myriad of special effects to create videos only restricted by the creativity of those creating them, Follow the Dead poses an intriguing question to the audience. If you saw what appeared to be the inception of a zombie apocalypse, would you actually believe it?

Written and directed by Adam William Cahill, Follow the Dead meets a motley crew of characters in a remote Irish town. When Robbie is shown a video which appears to depict a zombie apocalypse, he is pretty unconvinced. He arrives home to his sister Liv and cousins Jay and Chi who all have differing opinions on the likelihood, but the general consensus is that no one really has much of a clue. But as the attacks start to spread and violence reaches their own small town, soon the foursome will not only have to work out the truth about the apocalypse but about themselves too.

As soon as anyone mentions a zombie film, several images and preconceived ideas come to mind. Though the genre is rich with a multitude of films, which cover a number of sub genres and tones, predominantly zombie movies bring to mind carnage, terror and gore. On the other end of the scale, the zombie genre is often associated with comedy and quirky characters who wouldn’t spring to mind as the type to survive an apocalypse. Follow the Dead is most definitely at the comic end of the zombie scale and actually a lot of the film deals far more with the characters at the centre rather than the zombies themselves. In that way, horror aficionados may be slightly disappointed if they come to this with hopes of being terrified and having trouble going to sleep that night.

For those hoping for a slightly gentler zombie experience then Follow the Dead is an entertaining and light hearted addition to the genre. The underlying social and topical themes give the film something a bit more tangible to take away from it but similarly Follow the Dead never veers into territory where it is pushing its message too much. The film does at times feel like it is borrowing from other films in the genre, but it manages to make these references feel on the right side of homage rather than derivation. The cast is solid, and it will be interesting to see what Cahill tackles next.