Rammbock: Berlin Undead (2010)

 

I personally see Rammbock: Berlin Undead as a gem in the zombie craze that has since came and went. Michi and his girlfriend Gabi are breaking up and she wants him to move out. When he comes over to talk to her about it he arrives just as a zombie outbreak is occurring. We don't have to wait long before we have the situation defined. Stuck in an apartment in a housing block in Berlin. Michi can see the chaos of the infection spreading in the courtyard below. Bites spreading the disease and converting normal people to infected fast zombies within seconds, like in "28 Days Later". Michi and a young guy are trapped in an apartment and we learn of the citywide spread of the infection via news reports. When the barricaded apartment becomes  unsafe steps must be taken to survive and find a way out of the city.

  I like that early in the film it plays with how people react when a crisis takes place. We have these people in the various apartments who can see each other through the windows facing the interior courtyard. They can communicate so we see how when things go wrong we tend to isolate ourselves. Working together might be more effective but people don't want to take risks and that risk assessment is shown through the inaction of many early in the film.

  Noise is the thing that attracts the infected they seem not quite blind but a bit limited in sight so doing anything where they can get you if you make noise. So as things deteriorate decisions have to be made, chances taken with the hope of survival. 

  Harper's story arc is about his obsession with his missing girlfriend trapped in her apartment without her early on she is foremost in his mind. She was breaking up with him but not because that is what he wanted. The crisis seems at first just a distraction for him as he obsesses about her. Things in the most uncomfortable way get resolved or at least the dynamics change,  when he eventually ends up in the attic of the building and Gabi and her new boyfriend are there. There is a real arc which is paralleled with a storyline of harper also trying to find his girlfriend and get out alive. 

  Michi is sort of a sad sack and the revelations are hard on him. Will there be a way out of this claustrophobic apartment building?  You will see if you watch the film which I recommend.