Devil's Playground (2010)

(38%) Yet another modern zombie flick that has nothing new to add at all, there's almost no reason at all why anyone needs to see this; yet somehow I oddly kind of enjoyed this cheap, simple, decently packaged fast zombie slice of throwaway B-movie fluff. This attempts to follow on the footsteps of the much better 21 days later with the zombies infected with some sort of chemical, only here the scientists featured are wholly incompetent with their 100% fail rate resulting in the zombie outbreak. Low end British star Danny Dyer plays (shock horror) a tough London crook, though he isn't really the main focus here which is on quite a wide assortment of little known faces. There's plenty of what most people want from a film of this type (blood, zombies getting smashed up) which is enough for a half recommendation, though there's nothing else here of any value whatsoever.

Fmovies: It's interesting how influential Danny Boyle's 28 DAYS LATER was . It wasn't apparent at the time but from that point onwards each and every zombie film must feature zombies , sorry "infected" who can outrun Usain Bolt while having the endurance of a marathon runner . It's also noticeable how many zombie films there are with a massive number of short films and films on The Horror Channel featuring zombie apocalypse . Perhaps most notciable of all is how poor most of them are . and with hindsight Boyle's film was much better than I thought it was on first viewing . This inspiration called DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND is better than most of its peers but that's probably down to a simple reason it's a conscious rip off from Boyle's original

In its favour and considering its cast it'd be a very easy route to take and treat as a Lads Mags horror comedy with lots of nudge nudge wink wink humour testing the patience of its prospective audience . One thing I did like was the dead pan serious tone and while it's hardly big budgeted it does its utmost best to paint a convincing infected outbreak that took place unseen in 28 DAYS LATER . One of the rejected plots for 28 WEEKS LATER was having a SAS platoon rescuing the Prime Minister from the infected outbreak and once you're aware of this rejected screenplay you're able to see how this scenario would have played out on screen . Replace the PM with someone who has a possible immunity to the infection and replace the SAS platoon a more diverse group and you're left thinking that Boyle and Garland got it riht with the version of 28 WEEKS LATER that did make it to the cinemas . Not to be too hard DEBVIL'S PLAYGROUND it's much more enjoyable than I expected it to be and has been one of the better films The Horror Channel has shown recently

If Danny Dyer was hoping this film would improve his star-rating then he's surely mistaken. This film is dyer(dire) sorry couldn't resist.

I love a good zombie-flick, but this isn't it. Bad direction, bad storyline, bad acting even worse script. There are no redeeming features to this boring, slow, limited action movie. Best avoid it if you can, be warned Danny Dyer's cockney scowl doesn't an actor make. When are film makers going to realize this guy is useless, and doesn't warrant the attention given to him.

Walk away, don't waste your time - painting your garden fence and watching it dry would be more entertaining than this drivel.

Devil's Playground fmovies. Stop me if you've heard this before.

A superdrug is tested inadvertently causes the patients to turn into mindless, rage filledÂ… ummmÂ… aaaaahhhhÂ… zombies I guess. Coming into contact with fluids or being bitten by the infected allows the virus/condition/disease to be spread, leading to a massive contagion in the entire nation of Great Britain.

Sound familiar? Well what about this? Only one patient seems immune to the negative symptoms – you know the flesh eating and general insanity – she is on the run, with various parties in pursuit to see if she holds the key to a cure.

OK so Devil's Playground hardly breaks into new territory, but it has a couple of moments, not the least of which is the count the clichés bingo that can be played while watching.

The reporter on the street being interrupted and killed on screen.

The guy who repeats "Mum. Mum. MUM!" as his destiny shuffles ever closer, covered in blood and ready to teach the poor dumb guy a lesson in common sense.

The guy who's infected and needs a cure immediately, only he lasts half the film without one while others who share a glass turn in 45 seconds flat.

The whole 'but she's pregnant' bit.

After the Zompocalypse © starts the infected immediately turn into parkour-ing Reapers from Blade 2, all leaping, snarling, unnecessary wall climbing menaces. They spill lots of blood and cause lots of gore all over the UK, usually with backdrops of carefully constructed carnage reminiscent of the Left 4 Dead video games.

Devil's Playground is uninspired and formulaic and doesn't do much to separate it from a million other similarly bland zombie flicks. As much as I love zombies I can't help but think for the time being they are a little overdone, this isn't the film that will revitalize the genre, but I give a couple bonus points for at least trying to make the film look bigger and flasher than a lot of other low budget efforts.

Final Rating – 4.5 / 10. So you say zombies are threatening the very social fabric of a nation again and it's up to a few individuals to save humanity? Wake me when it's finished will ya?

A film based on zombies that move quicker than most (but not all) zombies from other movies is not a good premise for a story. It's not even the seed of a story. Even their own blurb says:

"DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND is a cutting edge British horror film that features zombies portrayed by free runners for a terrifyingly authentic representation of the undead."

There are so many things wrong with everything in that sentence, but mainly the word 'authentic', as if the filmmakers spent time documenting those pesky reanimated corpses which litter our streets, sprinting and leaping about everywhere.

This is barely a movie. I could criticize it further, but you can simply choose any word like 'acting' or 'directing' or 'script' and put it next to the word 'terrible'. This will save you time. The two stars is for a good title. If you want to watch free runners pretend to be zombies, you have my sympathy.

I sat through this bum-fluff at the recent GoreZone Festival in London's West End and almost lost the will to live before the opening credits had rolled. The prologue featuring bargain-basement 'action-man' Craig Fairbrass woodenly spouting even more wooden dialogue at the camera as a prep for the sub '28 Days Later' 'Rollercoaster' to come, made my heart sink faster than 'The Detonator' ride at Thorpe Park, and quickly proved its pedigree as a very bad omen for things to come.

Despite the first half hour containing a few nods to the guilty pleasures of Tobe Hooper's 'Lifeforce', there is little to no fun to be derived from this joyless and dispiritingly derivative Brit-Horror that scrapes the bottom of the 'Zombies-what-can-run' barrel into the dirt.

Accomplished camera-work and Sean Pertwee's hilarious cameo stave off some of the boredom, but a hopeless script and Danny Dyer's pathetic attempt at an emphatic hero put debut director Mark McQueen's puny entry into this exhausted genre deservedly into the dustbin of the underachieving undead.