Valley of the Dead is now streaming on Netflix.
I’ve seen zombies tear through World War II (Overlord), interrupt the American Civil War (Exit Humanity), and now I’ve seen them invade the Spanish Civil War thanks to Alberto de Toro and Javier Ruiz Caldera’s Valley of the Dead. There’s no connection to Zack Snyder’s ongoing Army of the Dead franchise; rather, Netflix’s import draws influence from John Carpenter’s horror catalog, according to its filmmakers. Another maniac plays god, reanimates corpses, and threatens humanity with an undead apocalypse like we’ve seen over and over, except this time there’s European cultural context to liven one more by-the-books zombie thriller.
Jan Lozano (Miki Esparbé), Captain of the Fifth Brigade, is taken captive by the opposition. He’s given a chance to redeem himself and prove loyalty if he accepts a suicide mission into enemy territory with his skittish young driver Decruz (Manel Llunell). Jan doesn’t waste an opportunity and finds himself a delivery man, caught between Nationalists and Republicans. Still, this is a zombie flick, so you’re correct to presume his objective is compromised when Nazi experimentation unleashes walkers onto battlefields — which becomes even more complicated when Jan is taken captive by adversarial rebels who don’t trust the situational turncoat.
