Martin (David Ryan) and his girlfriend Helena (Marian Araujo), are driving through the Irish countryside, when they plough into a bloke who’s wandered into the road. The man, who’s infected with a mutated mad cow disease, comes round and takes a chunk out of  Martin's neck. Helena runs to a nearby cottage to seek help, and Martin, who has become zombified himself, joins her and the alarmed Helena has to dispatch him with the aid of a vacuum cleaner. When other undead locals try to join the party, Helena runs off and is saved from the path of a speeding car by Desmond (David Muyllaert), a shovel carrying gravedigger. The countryside is crawling with zombies, so Helena and Desmond head across the fields to his house before night falls. They meet the fast talking, hurley wielding man, Cathal Cheunt (Eoin Whelan) and his wife, and along with feisty young Lisa (Kathryn Toolan) they head off in Cathal's car, trying to escape the epidemic and the ever increasing army of the undead.

Dead Meat looks fantastic, the County Leitrim countryside provides stunning locations and director Conor McMahon makes the most of it with some beautiful camera work, using some of the ancient buildings that litter the Irish countryside to great effect. The three main characters all perform well, Eoin Whelan is wonderful as the crazy hurling coach, dexterously caving zombie's heads in with his trusty hurley. It's a major struggle trying to understand what the hell he's saying most of the time, but he is one very funny character. Marian Araujo looks great and can act, but unfortunately her character is lacking in any substance, which really is the film’s only weak point in my opinion. There's lots of action, laughs and plenty of gore, including head-splitting, decapitation and stiletto skewering. It's been called by some an Irish Shaun of the Dead; I actually prefer Dead Meat, even with it's in-jokes and homages to some of the classics, it's a proper Zombie film, made by someone who really understands the horror genre. S.J.T.

Dead Meat.  2004

Directed by Conor McMahon