Devil's Playground (2010)

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

An excellent script and expert direction make for some of the most powerful apocalyptic imagery ever put on film. There is one haunting scene after another in this motion picture and the audience will find itself swept up in the unrelenting suspense and action. With a cast of superb actors bringing a literate, intelligent script to life under a skilled director, it is a perfect situation for producing one of the greatest films dealing with the apocalypse in cinema history. Jamie Murray, in particular, is stunning here and gives a performance that is electric. You won't soon forget the overwhelmingly explosive proceedings which leads to one of the most inspired endings to ever reach the silver screen.

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

This may or may not contain spoilers, but who cares...This movie was just bad so I wouldn't be spoiling anything cause the movie is already like curdled milk.At no point did I find the acting by ANY of the actors to be even remotely believable. They have random monologues for the sake of........'monologuing', it would seem. And, Danny Dyer, as cute as he is, seemed stiff as a board (not in a good way) throughout the whole film. It was almost as if he was forgetting his blocking. Fairbrass was, at very most, excruciatingly stereotypical. The writer tried to give him a back story...by repeating the same scene over and over for you to only find out why his character felt so bad about killing people. I think I was supposed to feel.....something...but I am not sure what and the most I felt was confused and annoyed.The undead are bland. Half of them run like Olympic Track Stars while others run like Special Olympic Walmart Greeters. I think the director should have made a clear point as to how the undead should move, that way all of the :::cough::: actors were on the same page.Apparently, when evacuating London during a massive catastrophe, only 1 street has backed up traffic....for a block...with a lane blocked off for road construction, though nothing was actually being done. After you get beyond that grueling traffic jam that was at a stand still for that one block, it is smooth sailing out of London. No worries, folks, the undead won't get you, but by bumping your car into the vehicle ahead of you, you're going to DESTROY your vehicle. Cars aren't made like they used to be made.Props change faster than I can switch underwear, boyfriends, or the snooze length on my alarm clock...which is quite impressive. Hammers turn into guns that turn back into hammers...which, I suppose, isn't so far fetched assuming Bumble Bee and Optimus have lent you a few of their team...though, changing into a Hammer is fairly lame.Whatever they used to film this movie with, they should have spent the time kicking around their camcorder like a soccer ball. It would have been used more effectively that way. It would appear, during post-production, the crew got together, got drunk, passed out, woke up, realized they'd done nothing to assist the film in it's stylizing or ambiance, but were too hung-over to care at that point. I was highly aware of several set-lights being used during night scenes. I didn't know that a fishing shed in the middle of the woods would be so well lit at night from so many angles.Regardless of all of this, I spent most of my time watching the background for people who were not actually part of the film but just happened to be caught by the camera. Check out the office buildings, the couple behind the news reporter, traffic heading into London, traffic IN London, and any more.I am not saying you shouldn't watch this movie. By all means, watch it if you want to watch it. I recommend this to those with insomnia. Works like a charm!

After watching some inadequate horror movies over the past couple of days, this was exactly what I needed - a gory, bloody zombie flick with all the trimmings. Devil's Playground takes place in London where a pharmaceutical company announces that they have stumbled across a new wonder drug that they describe as a legal "performance enhancer" (super steroids) which actually (to the embarrassment of the drug company) turns out to be a poisonous cocktail that kicks off a zombie outbreak which quickly sweeps through the UK.We follow a group of people as they try to survive by finding an area somewhere in London that is zombie-free. Now, there's a plot twist that's pretty much a blatant ripoff of 28 Weeks Later, but I chose to look past it because the character development was adequate and the storyline bumped along at an even pace.Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention the zombies. Devil's playground follows in the new tradition of showcasing athletic zombies that have the same speed and the same appetite as Mike Tyson. Yes, the zombies you know and love from the Dawn Of The Dead remake and 28 Days & Weeks Later are back to hunt people down like a pack of bloodthirsty dobermans that haven't been fed for weeks.The movie doesn't quite live up to the standards of Dawn Of The Dead and 28 Days & Weeks Later, but it's well worth the time if you're in the mood for a zombie flick and haven't filled your blood and gore quota for the month. Two thumbs up, horror fans.