TL;DR – A solid Spanish zombie film, with good tension, a capable lead, and strong worldbuilding.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no end-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime service that was used to view this film.

Warning – Contains scenes which may cause distress.

Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End Review Introduction

Tonight, as we are spooky season adjacent, I thought I would dip into a horror film and the new Spanish Zombie film was recommended to me. It was at that point that I remembered that I had planned to watch the first film in the series but never got around to it. Well, there is no time like the present to fix that.

So, to set the scene, it is the new year in Spain and Manel (Francisco Ortiz) and Júlia (Iria del Río) are on their way back from visiting Manel’s family when a traffic accident changes their lives. A year later, things are a bit tense as a virus has the EU thinking of closing borders. Life is moving on, as the cases are ‘contained’ in Spain, but there is fear that collapse is on the horizon, and important people are being moved out to the Canary Islands for some reason.

Worldbuilding the Chaos.

One thing I did like about the start of the film was how well the film did in setting up the fall of Spain. Maybe it was just my experiences with how COVID started, but there was a feeling of familiarity. News channels trying to reach for anything, inflaming through their own ignorance, governments trying to get a handle on something completely out of their control. Stores looted, people panicking, shelves empty, and sense of community collapsing. All before the first zombie screams onto view. Also, we have the very real depictions of people responding in those first moments. We know they are in a zombie film; they don’t, and they act understandably, such as the police officer rushing to handcuff himself to protect people because he had been bitten.

Strong Lead

The next strength comes from the choice of Francisco Ortiz as the main lead, and I don’t mean just because of his deep baritone voice that carries a lot of the film. But it is his interactions with the other characters in the film. I do believe he would have taken Gabriela (Amalia Gómez); when he had to kill that zombie woman, he took the time to make sure she could be identified, and then there is his care for Lúculo (Pedrito) that always rang true. All of this is important because, for the character, the Zombie film does not start until 47 minutes in, so you need that bond in there.

Tension

Much like other zombie films, much of Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End works on tension. As we are in a fast-zombie film, one bite can start a chain reaction very quickly. Each scratch, each noise, the wrong key, could be the end or could be a horrific zombie baby, which would make two zombie babies I have seen this year thanks to Resident Evil, and that is two too many. Things do start to wane a touch when you have issues such as inconsistently upset zombies, a couple of not survivable situations, and a couple of wide shots that don’t quite hold up. But they are small things.

Recommendation

In the end, do we recommend Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End? As far as zombie films go, this was a solid entry. It wasn’t taking the genre in any new direction, but it was still engaging.

Have you watched Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End? Let us know what you thought in the comments below. If you liked Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End, we would recommend A Quiet Place: Day One to you because it also shows how adding a cat to a horror film makes things much more interesting.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Bluesky at @Tldrmovrev, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End
Directed by – Carles Torrens
Screenplay by Ángel Agudo
Based on – Apocalipsis Z 1. El principio del fin by Manel Loureiro
Music by – Federico Jusid
Cinematography by – Elías M. Félix
Edited by – Luis de la Madrid
Production/Distribution Companies – Nostromo Pictures & Amazon Prime
Starring – Francisco Ortiz, José María Yazpik, Berta Vázquez, Iria del Río, Marta Poveda, Amalia Gómez, María Salgueiro, & Yuri Mikhaylychenko
With – Ian Monclús, Yaiza Macias, Ana García Molero, Iago Andrade, Mohamed-Ali Boulabiar, Sergey Grab, Beka Lemonjava, Niko Verona, Oriol Ruiz & Lúculo
Rating – Australia: MA15+;