Goal Of The Dead

Football, one of the biggest sports worldwide. No matter what team you cheer on, or what league you follow, there will always be a passion for football. Does this mean the same passion as swedes have for Ron De Jeremy Rum ? Yes, i guess you could say we love both of these subjects, and together it is a perfect combination. I can´t say i know a lot about french football. If someone would say France, i would think of a drunk Gerard Depardieau, great food, and of course the brilliant musician Sebastien Tellier. Wine is of course world famous from french wine makers, but let us think for a moment. French movies have actually delivered a lot of great films for many years, especially french action films and thriller films. They are really instensive and very well directed. One of my personal favourite french films is The Crimson Rivers, a psychological thriller with Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel. If you have not seen this one, i can easily recommend it. When it comes to french horror films, we have seen some interesting releases, like the very disturbed film Inside. I would also recommend Frontier ( s ), Another very disturbing french horror film that is very affective. When it comes to zombie films, i can´t really say i have seen that much from France, except for La Horde, a great zombie action film. Maybe the genre will grow with Goal Of The Dead. a zombie horror comedy combined with football. With 2 directors, Benjamin Rocher ( director of La Horde also ) and Thierry Poiraud ( mostly directed short films so far ), they both directed Goal Of The Dead together, and i was curious to see if football could be a fun element in this genre. Is this a fresh take on the zombie genre, or should they have skipped the football idea completely and made a different film ?

The Olympique de Paris soccer squad team, is travelling towards the small town of Caplongue. This is the hometown of legendary football player Sam Lorit ( Alban Lenoir ), who is going back after 17 years away to play in other football clubs. The locals of Caplongue see Sam Lorit as a traitor to leave his hometown´s football club, for a Paris club. But still the game is going to be as planned, and Sam is excited to be back. On the bus is the latest football talent Idriss Diago ( Ahmed Sylla ), who seems himself to be the star of the team. Sam tries to avoid this young mans ego personality and focus on his game plan. Suddenly out on the highway, their bus is hit by something large. A huge stain of blood is on the front, but nothing can bee seen lying on the highway. So the team decide to continue their trip. But one of the players is left out in the Woods, since he went to take a leak, and he is attacked by an infected man. Suddenly an epidemic begin to grow towards the town of Caplongue. The team arrive to town and head towards the arena. The Caplongue folks scream awful things to Sam, and he is very dissapointed as he walks into the arena. He thought they would be happy to see him back. The match begins and it turns out to be a hard battle. Sam accidently lands on an oppisite team player, who injure himself. Sam is ordered to leave the game, but Sam realise this is already planned since he is not welcome back to his hometown. So he destroys memories and pictures near the dressing room, furious how he is treated. Outside on the field, something strange is going on. A very fast player is running out, attacking everyone on the game field. Suddenly both players and the audience is infected becoming zombies. Sam head towards a bar to drink his sadness away, where his only fan Cleo ( Tiphaine Daviot ) is also located. Suddenly they also discover the whole town is infected. What started this infection and is there a way out ?

If you are hoping to see beautiful landscapes, people laughing over a glass of wine from Per Moberg, this is definetley the wrong place to be. Goal Of The Dead is a fun combination of sports action horror comedy, all mixed into one blender. I like the idea of trying different ingredients in a genre that sometimes feels worn out. Thankfully directors Benjamin Rocher and Thierry Poiraud try and spice things upp with some surprises along the way. If you are not a football fan, don´t worry, there are plenty of scenes where no football is played. It is fun to see zombies puke out galons of white substance to infect people, instead of biting them. I also like the idea of a zombie invasion in a small town in the countryside. I only have one problem with Goal Of The Dead. Since this is supposed to be a horror comedy, i feel that some comedy scenes falls pretty flat sometimes. There are some funny scenes, but not enough to call this a funny zombie film. One of the highlights must be when a whole crowd is puking all over each other and become infected, i just could not stop laughing. I would probably say that the action scenes and the zombie attacks works better, that makes this film worth seeing. The acting is actually not bad, especially from lead actor Alban Lenoir. Once the game ends in chaos, and the town is infected, be prepared to enjoy some great intensive zombie scenes. Goal Of The Dead is not as good as La Horde ( The 2009 zombie action film by director Benjamin Rocher ), but i still find myself having a good time. There is plenty enough of classic ingredients for zombie lovers to find themselves enjoying this combination of sport and zombie invasion. Goal Of The Dead may not be a winner, but this is definetely a zombie film for us who love B movies and cat get enough of well made zombie invasions. Anyone want to shoot some football on zombies at Norrporten Arena ? Let´s just tie them up first in the goal, and whoever shoot of their heads first gets a free drink, great prize right ?

Rating: DDD