Beystiman
It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.
Ariella Broughton
It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.
Nicole
I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
Phillipa
Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
begob
Two unhappy young lovers are separated by a zombie apocalypse, and to reunite they must find strengths they never knew they had. Will they, won't they?Cynical satire layered over a crystal clear story, with great rhythm in the writing and editing. This comes in 3 episodes (alternative format 5) but apart from the recaps at the start can be watched as an unbroken whole like a full length feature of 140 mins. Too long, you say? Nah - they get it right.It's a mix of Dawn Of The Dead, using the satire of the original and the energy of the remake, with the matured version of UK Big Brother, using Endomol's privileges to get the most into the production. Davina gives a performance that will define her forever.The plotting and pace is good. Characterization good too - although the tone of the extreme characters is sometimes annoying rather than grotesque. I'm thinking of the conflicts between the tranny and the northern bloke, and the scene where the producer slices up the corpse. But the lovers are well played and ... lovable. Acting never awkward.Overall: My favourite zombiedom after Dawn Of The Dead 2003.
Sane Review
Was recommended this series after watching Black Mirror and I think that affected how I experienced it. Black Mirror is leagues ahead of this show but damn its actually a really good series with a very to the point mediation on the zombie like nature of humans and the consumption of pop media in the UK. I felt like there could've been more commentary as the story developed but for the length it does it's job as a zombie series well. Definitely rather watch this rather than Walking Dead. Character development can be a bit blunt with inexplicably difficult character but it leads to a cathartic conclusion.
Dan Ashley (DanLives1980)
What's not to like about a sudden zombie apocalypse trolling the attention seeking celeb wannabe contestants of a burned out reality TV gameshow? What's even better was that they used Channel 4's Big Brother and its original host to completely and utterly take the mick out of the tragically useless stereotypes that get picked for this show every year. Kevin Eldon did a fantastic job especially, portraying the miserable armchair politician type with a crush without a hope.Dead Set takes a few good actors, a few television comics, and a brilliant special effects workshop and makes one of the best British efforts in horror there's been since 28 Days Later.The great cinematography lends a lot of suspense and atmosphere, all in the right places (when it's taking itself seriously). The gore is fantastic and well executed, and the whole film - even the funny parts - are bleak.What cheapens it for me is how quickly survival leads good characters into the clichéd survival mode reserved for Americans in B-movies. That ultimately leads to the movie's predictable ending with people dying stupidly where they don't die horrifically, but the comedy element somewhat balances that with equal measure.I don't know if it was supposed to have some message at the end, but the one I took away was along the lines of "good, Davina's dead, let's put something else on the telly!" Never happened.
MrGKB
Given the stunning success of "The Walking Dead" over the past several years, someone's really missing a trick not getting a quality Region 1 release into the pipeline. Yes, I've learned there's an all-regions edition out there, but I don't believe it's been distributed widely, and in any case it certainly hasn't been promoted very well. "Dead Set" is a fine, fine little apocalyptic adventure centered on the travails of a reality-TV cast and crew beset by ravenous zombie hordes ala "28 Days Later." Yep, we've got "zoombies" here, but strangely enough, despite being a purist who distinctly favors Romero-style shamblers, I didn't have a problem with that. The acting is solid, especially lead Jaime "Made in Dagenham" Winstone and primary antagonist Andy "Kick-Ass 2" Nyman, the plot and pacing quite good (ignore the ADHD namby-pambies who whine that the set-up is too long), and the production values of a piece, especially for what is essentially low- budget TV. Any zombie fan worthy of the name should enjoy this one, and, yes, I'd love to see a follow-up of some kind. Recommended.