Dead Set Review.

For those who don't know, Dead Set, a five part UK mini series that aired last year, revolves around the idea if there was a zombie outbreak and the safest place to be would be the Big Brother house.

That's pretty scary on its own if you know what kind of people usually inhabit said house, pretty much the bottom of the barrel desperate celebrity hopefuls clawing at a chance of fandom.

The story opens on Eviction night, the night where the next contestant on the show is asked to leave and the production team busy putting together the best show they can. Unbeknown to them there is a wave of violence spreading over Great Britain and what worries them the most is that the news might push them from their time slot. 

With fans of the show crowding outside to catch a glimpse of their favorite contestant they don't notice a bloodied man stumbling in between them and soon all hell breaks lose. Raging zombies storm the TV station and real life TV personalities are torn to bits and the blood flows through the corridors. A new employee at the station, Kelly, barely manages to make her way to the Big Brother house and is confronted by the contestants who have no idea what's happening. 

The thing about the Big Brother house is that it's totally cut off from the outside world and is almost self sufficient which makes it pretty safe. The only danger are the self absorbed "celebrities" that live there and soon the conflicts that thrived on the show rear their ugly heads when the cameras are off and no one is watching.

We follow three principal characters through this story, Kelly and her band of contestants, Rig, Kelly's boyfriend who is trapped in the country side and trying to find his way to her and Patrick, an obnoxious Big Brother producer who is trapped in the green room with Pippa, the last contestant voted out and an utter idiot.

In a nutshell the basic story elements are borrowed from Romero, especially Dawn of the Dead, with people trapped in a safe haven and hordes of zombies drawn to its location by instinct and a key scene is directly lifted from Day of the Dead. The filmmakers also take the piss out of Big Brother itself, its contestants and fans and it is rather surprising to see that the show is shot at the actual house and they got key people from it to participate, both former house mates and its announcer Davina McCall.

I was surprised how far the creators, mostly known for their comedy shows, went in to the realm of zombiedom in this, plenty of blood and gore and they manage to keep things tense and scary but also throw in fair amount of comedy at the right places. The zombies are of the fast kind and the whole thing could be a companion piece to either 28 Days Later or the Dawn of the Dead remake.

The five episodes make up 140 minutes of zombie mayhem and I felt that the show never dropped its pace, there were of course annoying characters you want to punch in the face, outside of the pre-annoying contestants but most if not all get their comeuppance in the end.

If you are not tired of zombies already and lets face it most of us are, this is a nice little gem that not many people outside the UK saw or know of. The DVD came out just a few days after the last episode aired and those interested can pick it up over at Amazon UK for a steal (linked below)