Luigi Costa is dead. Luigi Costa should be dead. The grave containing the body of Luigi Costa is empty though and journalist Stefano is determined to find him. Leading him here were strange letters he had discovered through an old typewriter which detailed things like K-Zones and bringing the dead back to life and if that is what happened to Costa, it will be a story unlike any other, should he be able to prove it all.

While it might have been marketed as a zombie movie, Zeder is unlike any zombie film one might have seen for while there is what one might call a zombie within, there are no shambling corpses that like to eat brains or anything of the sort. Instead, this horror film turns out to be more of a mystery, one packed with secrets and a cult of sorts, a possible conspiracy and of course, death. It is an ominous affair, one that has a creeping dread that gets more pronounced the further it goes along. As Stefano, who is played by Gabriele Lavia, finds more clues and gets closer to discovering what these K-Zones are all about finding out what really happened to Costa, the atmosphere gets heavier and director Pupi Avati expertly ramps up the tension with every passing moment. Lavia is compelling as the lead character in this film, the man making Stefano’s obsession palpable until that moment when it finally breaks and the picture ends with this broken man doing the unthinkable.

Also making this film stand out from the pack is the fact that there is little blood or gore to be found. Avati chooses to go another route, letting the storytelling and the atmosphere he paints with it fill the audience with dread instead of going for cheap shocks. It works perfectly as one cannot help but feel for Stefano, knowing that things are going to get worse before they get better and realizing in the end that there will not in fact be a happy ending. The choice of locale helps to really drive home the bleakness of the situation and the fact that there is nobody coming to the rescue should there be a need for one. The oppressive mood of the picture deepens when Stefano reaches the point of the tale where it looks like he might receive all the answers he is looking for and Avati’s use of setting and area works just as well, if not better than if he had chosen to fill it with the dead rising up to cause whatever terror they might.

Suffice it to say, this is not a film that will be everyone’s cup of tea. It is a zombie movie and yet, it turns out to be a lot more and its tragic ending really makes it stand out from other pictures of its ilk. For those who might like a little more meat on the bone, Zeder is well worth the watch.

4 out of 5