It
wasn’t a virus that created these zombies. It was spiritual and cosmic, like a
manifestation of Pre-Columbian malaise. Something is blocking the dead’s
passage from the earthly Maori world (pre-Western contact), to the realm of the
hereafter. That forces all the angry new spirits back into their decaying
bodies. The notorious warrior Waka Nuku Rau also came back from the dead, but
he is a special case. His ancestors won’t take him until he atones for his
barbaric sins. It will take something big, but if he can reopen the passage
between worlds of the living and the dead, bringing balance back to the
universe, he could possibly restore his lost honor in The Dead Lands the series, which premieres today on Shudder.
The
series incarnation of Dead Lands is
more or less set in the same Maori universe as the 2014 film of the same name
and their share similar themes and creator/screenwriter Glenn Standring, but
the narratives discretely stand alone. Te Kohe Tuhaka also stars in both, first
playing the menacing villain Wirepa and the film and now portraying Waka, the
anti-hero—with an emphasis on “anti.”
Having
killed, maimed, and pillaged with reckless abandon, Waka is a little short on
good karma when his enemies finally get the drop on him. Essentially, the
guardians of the afterlife send him right back where he came from, but being
heroic does not come naturally to him. It takes a while for Waka to realize he
was probably meant to help Mehe rescue her father, the chief of her tribe, from
a subterranean horde of zombies (technically, they don’t call them zombies,
because the Maori do not yet have Walking
Dead comics or Living Dead movies,
but it is the same difference).
Waka
and Mehe bicker like cats and dogs, but when push comes to shove, he has her
back—or at least he does throughout the first three episodes made available to
the media. You have to give him credit for that, because the spirit of his
not-so-dearly departed mother is constantly pushing him to sacrifice Mehe to
the spirits. She is quite a piece of work, like Angela Lansbury in The Manchurian Candidate crossed with
Jacki Weaver in Animal Kingdom. It is
easy to understand how he grew up to be so angry.
Dead
or not, Waka still sure can fight. Good thing too, because he will have plenty
of opportunities. Rather reluctantly, Waka will find himself embroiled in a
power struggle within Mehe’s tribe and a mission to rescue a young man who
knows who broke the world from a trio of witches, but he is always comfortable
hacking away at zombies with his paddle-shaped patus.
The
Dead Lands film deliberately set out
to showcase the Maori martial arts of Mau Rakau. The series does not skimp on
action either, but it also balances it with supernatural elements. Fans of the
Joseon zombie movie Rampant should
definitely dig this series too.
Everyone
who saw the movie knows Te Kohe Tuhaka has all kinds of fierce action chops and
Mau Rakau skills. In the series, he also turns out to be increasingly
charismatic and surprising funny. In just three episodes, he develops Waka into
an enormously entertaining, snarlingly roguish action lead. Mehe’s character
has yet to be fully defined, but Darneen Christian nicely plays off Tuhaka in
their sparring scenes (verbal and physical). Yet, Vicky Haughton upstages
everyone as Waka’s nasty mum, Turika. Seriously, her work is on a level with
Weaver’s Oscar-nominated performance in Animal
Kingdom.
Dead Lands the series is
dark, violent, and admittedly a little bit meatheadish at times, but it evokes
a deep, primordial vibe. It also fully taps into the power of New Zealand’s
wild natural beauty. If the series catches on, it is easy to envision the Lord of the Rings tours adding a few Dead Lands stops. So far, it is a good
deal of fun, while still taking its underlying mythology deadly seriously
(unlike The Witcher). Recommended for
fans of the action and horror genres, The
Dead Lands launches today (1/23) on Shudder.