It’s an ambitious goal that UK director Shaun Robert Smith has set for himself: to create the ultimate historical zombie movie if not the ultimate zombie movie ever. Then again, ambition is best suited to themes involving Nazi Germany circa 1944. Those who know their history know that the Third Reich was the Nazi definition of their allegedly glorious regime and it was ambitious, yet at the same, time Allied forces were being quite ambitious themselves by even attempting to invade the immense fortress that Germany was at that time. In a sense, this is the ultimate epic of our time and that is reflected by the fact that the generation who fought World War II is now referred to as the ‘Greatest Generation’.

Ambition is the thrust of 4th Reich and it has already acquired quite a bit of momentum, building upon the initial success of Smith’s ‘The Soldier’ a short form that serves as something of an introduction to the larger epic that will unfold in this movie. Talent on board so far includes an FX team that has been involved in such films as Valkyrie, Rambo 4 and Harry Potter; as well as a Production Designer (Mark Tanner) who worked on both Mutant Chronicles and Saving Private Ryan; and perhaps most notably for long time horror fans, Tom Savini. This is only scratching the surface, but it is enough to get the point across that this film’s production is serious business.

While Nazi zombies are certainly nothing earth shattering conceptually speaking, 4th Reich intends to plow new ground by introducing a heavy historical angle. This movie is in no way a comedy and its director intends it to give a serious look at the horrors of war, thus leveraging the zombie (and Nazi) stereotypes to explore more serious terrain, something closer to what George Romero did with his films.

The story will follow our heroes, Captain Bathurst and the men of the 3rd Infantry Division, as they battle through French territory on their way to liberate Berlin and cast Hitler from power once and for all. As they close in, they encounter truly surreal combat conditions, but they forge on until arriving at an abandoned research facility that Dr. Joseph Mengele (a real historical SS ‘doctor’) oversaw in twisted experiments on victims of Hitler’s regime. They will uncover an unspeakable evil, a Nazi plan to create storm troopers who can never die.

While the plot itself certainly captivates, what really sets this film apart from others in the zombie subgenre, and the horror genre at large, is its greater mission to explore the theme of war’s horror. This makes the movie more of a Saving Private Ryan feature gone horrifically wrong. That sets high expectations for the audience, but it also goes where horror usually fails to go into: meaningful territory. The combined impact of a war film with a zombie twist is sure to take horror in another direction, particularly since many real life historical details (though not all) will remain intact. That’s good news for our genre which is often considered trite by fans of allegedly more ‘relevant’ movie genres.

The 4th Reich certainly looks to be an amazing film that will offer a lot of sheer terror and gripping high level adventure, so here’s to the project’s successful completion. Whether it ends up being the mother of all zombie films or not, this movie definitely gets our vote for a creative twist to a long loved form of horror.

Read our exclusive interview with the director, too!