Rammbock: Berlin Undead (2010)

I heard about this movie a few weeks ago, and being a massive fan of zombie movies, I had to give it a watch. Rammbock: Berlin Undead is a zombie movie set in Germany. I haven't seen many zombie movies from around the world, although I know they must exist. REC is a good example, and that was remade into the English version Quarantine. Hit the jump to see if this can live up to the zombie movies of the past.


The story of Rammbock is the same as all zombie movies. An unearthly outbreak occurs and our protagonists are left to survive. In this case, it is Michael and Harper who meet under these hellish circumstances when Michael arrives in Berlin to win back his girlfriend Gabbi. She had moved away for work, and he came to Berlin to get her back, but when he arrives at her apartment, she isn't there. Instead he finds two workmen fixing her radiator, one of which has a wound and is acting strange. Harper is the other guy, a young man who seems to be a helper to the older looking repairman, who then goes crazy and attacks them both. They manage to fend him off and lock him outside the apartment door, but now they're trapped, and Gabbi is no where to be found.

The repairman and Harper

Unlike other zombie movies, it's never made perfectly clear if these are just "infected" people, or if they are truly "undead". It's most likely they are just the "infected" kind, which means a fatal wound to them isn't any different to what would be fatal to a regular person. It is also revealed by a newscast on the radio in the film that even if you get infected, you can stave it off by remaining calm; that the infection only enters the brain with an adrenaline burst. I believe they also claim on the radio that they can cure the disease so long as it hasn't gotten into the brain and driven the person mad. Whether or not this is true is never revealed. However, this does lead to an interesting quest in the movie to obtain sedatives to keep wounded people human.

Another interesting twist that it does to the stereotypical zombie story, and which I don't believe I've ever seen done in other zombie movies, is that their pure white eyes are hyper sensitive to light. This means that bright lights and camera flashes can keep them back temporarily as they flinch and stumble back. I quite liked this little addition, if only because it made the usually apocalyptic zombie outbreak seem like it could be somewhat survivable.

Never trust old ladies! They're most likely zombies.

The only downside to Rammbock: Berlin Undead is that it's only an hour long. On the plus side, the effects are quite good and the setting is interesting. The apartment block they're trapped in is one of those kind with a large center courtyard. This means that they are able to communicate with other people in the apartment building by opening their windows and talking across the gap. Then there is some interesting traversal as they move around inside the apartment building, including smashing down a wall with a homemade battering ram, which is what "rammbock" means in German, by the way.

Overall I thought this was a good zombie movie. Lots of decently tense moments and some new spins on the concept of what a zombie could be. I just wish it was longer. Just as they're getting into the situation, it's nearly over. Of course, how much setup does a zombie movie really need anyways? We all know the situation by now; we know the deal. In that way I guess it was good that not a lot of time was spent on the characters discovering what was going on. Anyways, if this type of movie interests you, you'll probably like it. If you're not into the idea of the undead, then you're best to skip it.