In Adam William Cahill's entertaining Irish zombie flick Follow the Dead, any temptation to compare the film to Shaun of the Dead is ill-advised as Cahill has much more going on and lands less on the side of zombie spoofing and far more on the side of leaning into his characters and taking a serious look at the generation in which they live. 

In the film, recently released by Indie Rights on Amazon Prime Video, Robbie (Luke Corcoran) lives alongside his sister Liv (Marybeth Herron) and their cousins Jay (Luke Collins) and Chi (Tadhg Devery) in the remote town of Ferbane. Online viral videos seem to be indicating that Dublin has been hit by an undead threat and these four Irish Millennials can't discern fake news from real. 

Has a dependent lifestyle left them too naive to weather their fate?

Follow the Dead picked up a slew of prizes along its festival including wins at Austria International Film Festival (Best Sci-fi Film), Central Florida Film Festival (Best Comedic Film), Chautauqua International Film Festival (Best Feature Film), Dublin International Comedy Film Festival (Best Sound Design, Best Supporting Male - Devery, and Best Irish Feature), Kentucky's Fright Night Film Festival (Best Foreign Feature, Best Foreign Feature - Director), Kerry Film Festival (Best Feature Film), Malta Film Festival (Best Comedy Feature), Seattle Film Festival (Best Comedy Horror Feature Film, Best Emerging Director, and Wales International Film Festival (Best Feature Film) among others. 

With the tagline "We Get The Monsters We Deserve," it should be readily apparent that Cahill has quite a bit more going on than one might expect and Follow the Dead ends up being a comedic zombie flick with a surprising amount of heart and more than a few chills and thrills. The ensemble cast is uniformly strong and it's completely unsurprising that Cahill picked up an emerging director prize for his unique vision and ability to pull it all off. Devery is an absolute gem as Chi and the immensely charismatic Herron captivates every single time the screen focuses on her. However, it warrants saying again that this entire ensemble works well together and is quite strong. 

Music by Steven Mckenna is effective throughout Follow the Dead and Stephen C. Walsh's lensing is incredibly inventive and leaves a strong impact for both the chills and the film's emotional rhythms. For a low-budget indie, there were several times when Walsh had me saying "Whoa!" out loud. 

Cahill leads us down the cinematic road quite nicely and does a slow reveal for the film's inspired storytelling that tackles the Millennial generation in some truly meaningful ways. Indeed, a good majority of Follow the Dead is a blast to watch and thoughtful enough that you'll be contemplating it long after the closing credits have rolled. You can check the film out for yourself on Amazon Prime Video. 

Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic