Bridge of the Doomed (2022)

Bridge of the Doomed opens with an army base coming under attack by zombies, with a group of civilians being overrun and eaten. This is a zombie apocalypse movie as it would have been portrayed in the 1980s, with plenty of gore and bloodshed.

After the initial attack, General Vasquez sends a squad led by Lt Whitmore and Sgt Hernandez to secure a bridge or destroy it if necessary. At the same time, they wait for reinforcements to arrive. Colonel Charon is responsible for ensuring that those reinforcements arrive.

Lin and Sanders save a woman named Susan from rape but end up in a standoff with a hostile group of survivors led by "Big" Jim Gill. Now they have two reasons to tread carefully.

The biggest threat the survivors will face is not from the zombies or other survivors but from something else entirely. Something living under the bridge is intelligent, fast, and hungry. Whatever it is, it poses a severe threat to the survivors. What sets Bridge of the Doomed apart from other zombie-themed films is the presence of an intelligent antagonist for the heroes to fight. In addition, whatever is under the bridge knows what explosive charges are and recognizes canned and boxed food. This gives the heroes a much more difficult challenge to overcome.

Director Michael Su and writer Adrian Milnes know how to deliver what audiences want from a film like this, and they do so by providing plenty of action and bloodshed. Bridge of the Doomed rarely goes for more than a few minutes without something happening, and it's frequently bloody.

The creature we finally get a good look at resembles a cross between The Creature From the Black Lagoon and The Monster of Piedras Blancas. Unfortunately, we never get an explanation of what it is. Although some of the special effects in the movie are not perfect, I can forgive that because they are practical effects rather than CGI. This is always a bonus.

Most special effects used in Bridge of the Doomed are practical effects, such as zombie makeup and gore. However, some computer-generated imagery (CGI) is also used for things such as muzzle flashes and bullet impacts. The gore is plentiful and realistically done, with plenty of flesh-ripping and disembowelment. This makes up for the lack of blood spray in some scenes. The bridge scene is the only significant effect error in the film. The CGI water looks fake, and another bridge is visible in the background. This should have been removed from the film's final cut, as it takes away from the realism of the scene.

It would have been nice if the civilians in the camp had been developed a bit more so that the inevitable zombie attack on it would have been more effective. Especially since, in addition to French, there are several familiar faces such as Thomas Haley among them. The cast is mainly made up of lesser-known actors, with only a few big names appearing in the film. However, even though some of the cast members don't have much screen time, they still manage to interact with each other and play an essential role in the film's final battle.

Bridge of the Doomed was a fast-paced and gory creature fest that left little to complain about. It delivered what it promised: a bloody good time. This film is about the bloody confrontations between the army and the zombies, and Su brings them to life in a very believable way. You can appreciate the work that went into making this film.