The Dead is one of the better zombie releases in recent memory and does a great job of capturing the spirit of George Romero's original "Dead" trilogy. If you haven’t had a chance to check out The Dead yet, it was recently released to Blu-ray and DVD.
Filmed in Africa by Jonathan and Howard J. Ford, The Dead features beautiful landscapes and makes for a unique setting for a zombie movie. However, the location choice also resulted in a difficult and dangerous shoot. I recently spoke with the Ford brothers and learned more about filming in Africa, the chance of seeing a sequel, and Howard's new book.
Thank you for taking the time to talk with Daily Dead. The Dead takes place in Africa instead of your more traditional zombie settings. What made you decide not only to set the film in Africa, but to film on location?
Jonathan: This is a story we’ve been chipping away at for 25+ years. We had this idea for a fish out of water story, involving a guy trapped in a strange foreign land. This was going to be a harsh land to survive in even without the zombies and we always wanted this to be a survival and journey movie.
Howard: When we came up with the idea to set it in Africa, not only could we deal with the journey and zombie action, but we could also have a film that has a deeper meaning. It’s about two cultures coming together to fight a common enemy. Hopefully, we took you across a journey against ironically beautiful landscapes. Even if you don’t like zombie movies, you’re going to get taken on a journey through places you haven’t seen before because no one was stupid enough to film there.
Jonathan: Yeah, we went the stupid route. We went to dangerous places in Africa, but the film had to have an authenticity to it. I wanted it to feel real and the villages you see in the movie were real. Those people really lived there. Once the dead come to life and attack the living, the rest of the movie is in the realm of the living.
Howard: For us there was no other choice, but to shoot on location. We wanted to make a journey movie and show locations that have not been seen.
Jonathan: We were also getting a bit tired of seeing so much CGI. We wanted to get back to reality and to a more 70’s movie feel. People are very smart, and they can tell the difference between reality and CGI backdrops. It had to be on location and somewhere different with a mix of horrible reality.
The Dead seems to follow the Romero zombie rules. Do you see this movie taking place in the same world as the George Romero zombie films?
Jonathan: Definitely. One thing I loved about Dawn of the Dead was that they didn’t give you detailed scientific reasons for the zombies. They wanted to get on with the story. Who cares how the chef made your dinner? You just want it to look good and eat it.
Howard: We knew early on we weren’t going to explain it. No matter how much we love zombie movies, there’s really no good reason for why the dead are walking around and eating flesh. That wasn’t important in this movie, but the journey was. I feel like this could be with Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2. That was taking place in the Caribbean while this was going on in Africa.
Jonathan: There were also very minor bits of dialogue. At one point, they mention the possibility of a bomb. In another scene you see a witch doctor, which was actually a real witch doctor. There were little things that we threw in the movie.
I think that always works for the best, because rarely is your average person going to be able to stop or cure a zombie outbreak.
Howard: You hit on another point Jonathan, because our main character is an ordinary guy. He wasn’t a hero or the guy trying to find an antidote or get the girl. He was just some regular guy trying to save himself, but the African people have banded together. Hopefully he picked things up from them along the way.
That definitely shows through. In particular, it reminds me of the car scene where he had the chance to drive away. In the beginning, he wasn’t the kind of guy who would have stopped.
Jonathan: You’re right. I don’t think he would have stopped in the beginning either. Along the way, he learns about humanity. That’s his journey along with the physical one.
I know you’ve been promoting The Dead for a while now and I’m wondering what’s next. Will we see another zombie from the two of you?
Howard: There is still the possibility for The Dead 2, but we’re going to wait to see. If you’re a fan of The Dead, we’d appreciate if you can buy the DVD and Blu-ray.
Jonathan: …and if we can afford the counseling to get over the events of the first shoot, we may be stupid enough to do it again.
Howard: If there is enough of a demand, we’ll have to do it, but it will take a lot of guts… probably literally. I actually have a new book called Surviving the Dead that has all of the horrible stories. We had such a tough time making this film and so I just kind of had to write it down to get over it. That’s going to come out on the first of March. Hopefully, those that have seen the movie and read the book will see the movie in a very different light.
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Learn more about The Dead and Surviving The Dead with the following articles:
After spending more than 10 years as a consultant in the tech and entertainment industry, Jonathan James launched Daily Dead in 2010 to share his interest in horror and sci-fi. Since then, it has grown into an online magazine with a staff of writers that provide daily news, reviews, interviews, and special features.
As the Editor-in-Chief of Daily Dead, Jonathan is responsible for bringing the latest horror news to millions of readers from around the world. He is also consulted with as an expert on zombies in entertainment and pop culture, providing analyses of the zombie sub-genre to newspapers, radio stations, and convention attendees.
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