Exit Humanity (2011)

In the last days of the American Civil War, the dead have begun to rise from the grave to feast on the living. Edward Young returns home from the war to find his wife has been zombified and his son is missing. Edward does what he has to do, putting down his wife and searching for his son through the hostile wilderness. Along the way he runs afoul of a psychotic former Confederate officer who is rounding up the living and the undead to try to discover a cure for the hellish plague.

Exit Humanity proves that an interesting setting and some creativity can overcome the budgetary limitations of your horror movie. Setting their zombie apocalypse just after the Civil War enables the filmmakers to take advantage of the (Canadian) wilderness, some rustic cabins, and a bit of period costuming, which obfuscate the shortcomings of their budget and actors. The movie even manages to employ some animated sequences (!) that effectively fill in for a few costly action scenes and effects they probably can't pull off.

The one thing that Exit Humanity doesn't overcome is the plodding pace. The film is intentionally slow and thoughtful rather than fast and furious, but they overshoot the mark between deliberate and dull. Still, the zombie makeup and effects are pretty good and the setting and style are unique enough to make this a decent alternative to the standard-issue zombie movie.