Episode 45: Valley of the Dead and Hard Line aka Dead Rush

The Undead Symphony

In this weeks episode we watch the Spanish Netflix offering Valley of the Dead, telling the story of Nazi experimentation during the bloody Spanish Civil war and Hard Line, aka Dead Rush, a POV modern day effort seen through the eyes of David, a regular guy as he tries to come to terms with the end of the world.
Sure, in Valley of the Dead, we have some dodgy CGI of planes, and driving scenes shot in front of a screen aside, I really like this. It felt formulaic in places when you lose a character at each location to the oncoming zombie hoards, but you could skim over that because it was well shot, the characters well played and fun, and who doesn't like trying to end Nazi experimentation? It is republicans backed by Russia verses nationalists back by Nazi Germany but in the end they are all Spaniards fighting for their lives and ideals when the undead return.
I hate POV with a capital P. Outside of the camera view in The Blair Witch Project it is always done badly, a gimmick, like the end of Doom, so it can be truer to it's computer game roots and when Neo comes back from the dead in The Matrix. So a whole 77 minute zombie movie shot entirely POV (other than two short scenes at the end and when the main character dies (SPOILER!)). Not as dumb as I initially thought, the acting is pretty limited, but this genre doesn't draw the best of the art, other than the TWD and spinoffs (obvs). They tried to make it immersive by making it POV, but in the end you are disappointed that you are David and not one of the others.