‘Valley of the Dead (Malnazidos)’ Review (Netflix)
Stars: Miki Esparbé, Aura Garrido, Luis Callejo, Álvaro Cervantes, Jesús Carroza, María Botto, Mouad Ghazouan, Sergio Torrico | Written by Jaime Marques, Cristian Conti | Directed by Javier Ruiz Caldera, Alberto de Toro
Netflix’s Spanish Civil War zombie movie Valley of the Dead (Malnazidos) is an entertaining stumble through familiar undead territory, courtesy of co-directors Javier Ruiz Caldera and Alberto de Toro. As such, it won’t surprise anyone who’s seen a zombie movie before, but it pushes all the right buttons, thanks to genre-savvy direction, likeable performances and a snappy script.
Valley of the Dead begins in 1938, in the middle of the Spanish Civil War, which has bitterly divided the losing Republican side and the Nazi-assisted Franco-led Nationalist side. In a chilling opening sequence, Nazi soldiers murder a wedding party and then spray the corpses with a blue gas, under the watchful eye of their Commandant (Francisco Reyes).
Meanwhile, lawyer-turned-soldier Captain Jan Lozano (Miki Esparbé) is sent on a suicide mission, after angering a close relative of Franco. Accompanied by disgraced jittery young soldier Decruz (Manel Llunell), Lozano is soon captured by a band of Republican soldiers led by Sargento (Luis Callejo). However, when they encounter flesh-eating zombies created by the blue gas, they realise they’re going to have to put aside their differences and work together if they’re going to survive.
The script deploys all the usual zombie tropes, from the characters quickly learning important zombie facts on the fly (they eat flesh, they don’t eat each other, they can only be stopped with a bullet to the brain, etc) to characters secretly getting bitten and making noble sacrifices. In fairness, the genre-savvy script does have one moment of zombie-based originality and it’s a pretty good one, though to say anything else would be to spoil the fun.
The performances are excellent, with the characters all sparking appealing comic chemistry with their constant bickering. In particular, Miki Esparbé is charismatic and likeable as Lozano (significantly mitigating the fact that he’s fighting on what’s usually seen as the ‘wrong’ side), while Callejo brings a world weariness to Sargento that works well.
Similarly, the rest of the cast bring colour and energy to their characters so that everyone feels distinctive and has a function in the script. To that end, Aura Garrido is superb as “Priest-Killer”, while Manel Llunell stays just the right side of annoying as Decruz, who’s given to nervously talking too much.
The production values are generally high, with simple-but-effective zombie make-up and just enough gore (a severed arm here, a head shot there) to make you think there’s more of it than there actually is. However, the film is slightly let down by a key effects decision, whereby every time a zombie is shot, a cloud of obviously CGI blood erupts around them. It’s meant to indicate that the blood is dry and powder-like, but it’s impossible to see it and not think it’s just shoddy, ill-advised CGI work.
That minor quibble aside, Valley of the Dead is a solidly entertaining, nicely paced zombie flick that’s worth seeing for its strong character work and knows how to pay off its emotional moments. Oh, and there’s a mid-credits sting, if you like that sort of thing.
***½ 3.5/5
Valley of the Dead is on Netflix now.
