"Dead Set" Episode #1.2 (2008)

Director:

Yann Demange

TV Series:

"Dead Set" (2008)

Original Air Date:

28 October 2008 (Season 1, Episode 2)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Horror

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Big Brother | Zombie | Show Within A Show | Satire | TV Channel

Cast

Jaime Winstone	...	Kelly
Andy Nyman	...	Patrick
Riz Ahmed	...	Riq
Chizzy Akudolu	...	Angel
Liz May Brice	...	Alex
Warren Brown	...	Marky
Shelley Conn	...	Claire
Beth Cordingly	...	Veronica
Adam Deacon	...	Space
Kevin Eldon	...	Joplin
Raj Ghatak	...	Grayson
Kathleen McDermott	...	Pippa
Jennifer Aries	...	Sophie (credit only)
Cavan Clerkin	...	Dennis (credit only)
Drew Edwards	...	Colin (credit only)

Runtime:

UK:141 min (5 episodes)

Filming Locations:

Finchampstead, Berkshire, England, UK

Trivia:

The line "They're coming to get you Barbara", spoken by Mikey, is a reference to Night of the Living Dead (1968). See also Shaun of the Dead (2004).

Quotes:

Riq: Where'd you get the gun from?
Alex: eBay.
Riq: Really?
[Alex huffs irritably]

More of the same.

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Dead Set (#1.2) starts as Kelly (Jaime Winstone) the lone surviving Big Brother production team member takes refuge in the Big Brother house with the Big Brother contestants one of whom was bitten by a zombie in an attack. Bleeding badly Kelly realises that the house-mate is about to die & become one of the flesh eating living dead unless medical supplies can be found, Kelly know's of a pharmacy nearby & together with the other house-mates devise a plan to get the medical supplies they need...

The second episode of this British produced zombie horror 28 Days Later... (2002) rip-off with the sole gimmick of being set in the Big Brother reality show house has now moved on from the initial 45 minute opening episode to the shorter 25 minutes ones although there is also a complete edit of all the episodes cut together as well just to confuse things. Personally I am in two minds about whether Dead Set would work better as a full feature length film or a five part TV mini-series since as one big chunk it would probably flow better but unfortunately it's pretty bad at times & I honestly don't think I could sit through over two hours of this in one sitting so cutting it up into five separate parts has actually helped me to get through it since I have to be honest & say I'm not really enjoying it that much. While this episode feels quite short nothing much happens, the old zombie film cliché of one of the group has been bitten & is about to change into a zombie which leads to some conflict between the character's takes up the majority of this episodes duration but apart from that this is just people stuck inside the Big Brother house while some zombie roam around outside. The ending to this episode is very abrupt & is supposed to be some sort of cliffhanger but if I am honest I couldn't care less if I saw episode three or not. Plenty of swearing & plenty of running around just makes things even worse. The Big Brother angle has been completely abandoned, it was all a gimmick after all just as I had predicted & the Big Brother house-mates didn't even register with me & watching this episode less than a day after the first one I couldn't remember any of the house-mates names or who they were at all.

Like episode one the shaky hand held camera is back in force, again you can barely see what's going on during the zombie scenes & the cinematography also has this grey, bleak overcast colour tone which makes the whole thing look very flat, colourless, bland & boring as most of the colour has been sucked out of the picture. Again the gore is nothing to get excited about, a zombie is shot in the head off screen & a blood splatter is seen on a window, there's a leg wound as a woman has been bitten & that's it or that's it as far as you can actually see through the jerky annoying hand held camera style cinematography. Another absolute pain to sit through. I am also noticing how cheap Dead Set looks as there are no shots set in London itself & most of the action takes place on country roads or in the Big Brother house.

Dead Set (#1.2) is a less than impressive second episode to not much better opening episode, I really hate the way this is shot & the story so far is just one long zombie film cliché. I really hope episode three is better.