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Craig Fairbrass, Danny Dyer, MyAnna Buring, Colin Salmon, Sean Pertwee ... see more see more... , Jaime Murray , Craig Conway , Lisa McAllister , Shane Taylor , Bart Ruspoli

When a revolutionary performance enhancer sparks a terrifying outbreak, humanity's only hope lies with the one test subject who didn't turn into a dangerous killing machine. RAK-295 is the latest drug... read more read more... from N-Gen industries. It was supposed to be the next big thing, but all of the 30,000 test subjects except for Angela Mills (MyAnna Burning) experience a terrifying transformation, the drug designed to make man stronger threatens to be his undoing. Incredibly, Angela seems completely immune to the drug's devastating side effects. Upon receiving word of this hopeful anomaly, N-Gen CEO Peter White (Colin Salmon) orders battle-hardened Head of Security Cole (Craig Fairbrass) to track Angela down, and get her into the lab. Meanwhile, Angela and her boyfriend Joe (Danny Dyer) are fighting for survival on the streets. When Cole shows up determined to drag Angela back to N-Gen Corporation, the future of mankind rests in the blood of one terrified woman with no place left to run. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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22% liked it

603 ratings

Unrated, 1 hr. 37 min.

Directed by: Mark McQueen (II)

Release Date: December 31, 2010

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DVD Release Date: October 11, 2011

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Flixster Reviews (145)

  • Beefy
    October 23, 2011
    Beefy
    In a genre as potentially played out as zombie films, you can't afford to be derivative or dull. And yet this was both. Not awful, but not much else.
  • drblood
    October 20, 2010
    drblood
    Call me shallow but the only reason I wanted to watch "Devil's Playground" was because I saw a picture of Jaime Murray on the IMDb and wanted to see more of her. She's been in quite a few horror genre films including "Botched" (2007) and "The Deaths of Ian Stone" (2007) but I thi... read morenk most people would know her from the "Warehouse 13" TV series. Unfortunately, she was very underused in this and I still didn't get to see her naked.
    Anyway, "Devil's Playground" is yet another apocalyptic virus/zombie movie with a huge amount of similarities to everything in the same subgenre from "28 Days Later" onwards. It's British and set in London with lots of fast running not-really-zombies who jump up walls and through open windows every chance they get.
    The zombies are the only things that are fast about "Devil's Playground" as the pacing is ridiculously slow. Everything feels like an episode of "Torchwood" but with no comedic aspects whatsoever apart from the cast of Mockneys all being unable to pronounce any words with "th" or "ing" in them. The usual suspects are all here including Danny Dyer, Craig Fairbrass and Sean Pertwee all posturing, dropping their aitches and saying, "Nuffin'" and "Summink" every couple of lines just to show how "London" they all are. Apart from all the gratuitous swearing, gore and violence, it could have been a Hallowe'en special of "The Bill".
    I didn't hate it any of it particularly except that it was the same old stuff that I've seen hundreds of times before but with different people. As a longtime consumer of Monster energy drinks it did amuse me slightly that the virus that mutates people into zombies was, in this case, caused by an energy supplement injection.
    As you can expect, the plot consists of a group of survivors trying to keep out of the way of the zombies but with some of them getting infected along the way. Of course, they go through lots of bouts of fighting among themselves too and there are the obligatory, and clichéd, suicides/self-sacrifices just to give them even more to woodenly act their way through.
    MyAnna Buring from "Lesbian Vampire Killers" plays the lead female role of Angela who just happens to be immune to the virus and carries the antidote in her bloodstream. You may also remember her from "The Descent" (2005) but maybe not as she has no screen presence whatsoever. Bearing that in mind, it's no wonder that she is rumoured to be playing the part of Tanya in the the next installment of the Twilight Saga. I suppose she's pretty enough if you like blondes but I prefer brunettes so I didn't care about her character in "Devil's Playground" at all.
    Mockney staple Danny Dyer has a backstory as a policeman who just got out of prison for shooting a kid and has all the guilt associated it but who cares? I used to like Danny Dyer as an actor and he's still good but, honestly, he's not action hero material and I wish he'd do better films than this. Maybe he'll be good in the remake of "The Asphyx" coming next year but I doubt it.
    The biggest role goes to the biggest (at least the tallest) actor in this, Craig Fairbrass, who always looks the part but hasn't really developed much as an actor since he was in "Eastenders". He seems to always be typecast as either a hard man or a soldier (or both) and it isn't doing him any favours even if it does pay his bills. His action scenes range from unintentionally comical to downright brutal but, without giving too much away, the chainsaw-wielding ending which I was hoping for didn't happen. He used to be a lot more charismatic but he's still no leading man material either. I just didn't warm to his character at all and the motivation behind his actions was questionable to say the least.
    It's not that any of the actors should have lacked chemistry because they all seem to live in each other's pockets with all the projects they are involved in together but they just did such horribly routine performances here that I really don't want to see any of them in anything ever again. Some people might argue that horror films don't need strong characterisation but I disagree with that entirely especially when it comes to groups of zombie survivors who you are supposed to feel something for.
    I'm not sure if it was the low-budget ($3,000,000!!!) or just inept filmmaking but "Devil's Playground" really dragged for me. At just over an hour and a half long it felt more like three hours in spite of some quite good action scenes. Like I said, I didn't totally hate it but there was just nothing new or inventive here and I got a bit bored waiting for the formulas to work themselves out.
    Somebody left me a comment recently telling me that if I'm that bored with zombie movies then maybe I shouldn't watch any more of them. The trouble is that if there's nothing else available in the horror genre to watch then I still have to watch them, don't I? I don't regret seeing "Devil's Playground" but it could have been a lot better. Fans of "28 Days Later" and "28 Weeks Later" will undoubtedly love it.
  • briandeguelle
    October 14, 2010
    briandeguelle
    Ok horror movie with surprising good acting.Its a cheap version of 28 days/weeks later.Action is actually good with a nice helping of gore. Coinciding its a low budget movie there are a few well know faces in this.My really only problem is that the infected are bloody good free r... read moreunners which seems a bit silly!
    Worth a look if your looking for a easy going horror flick.
  • stuartb1234
    October 14, 2010
    stuartb1234
    Its not bad but its certainly not nearly as good as 28 days later. Biggest gimmick is the facts the zombies/infected are played by freerunners.
  • John2223
    October 16, 2010
    John2223
    "Devil's Playground" has the same basic concept of "28 Days Later"; fast-moving infected and a group of individuals trying to escape the horror, fighting amongst themselves on the way. The stunt sequences are well done and the movie is nicely shot, with some fantastic views of Lo... read morendon on display BUT the characters are melodramatic clichés that ruin the pace of the movie here and there.
    Not a bad addiction to the infected genre.
  • joemamaohio
    May 17, 2012
    joemamaohio
    A corporation has invented a new type of drug, and tests it on 30,000 test subjects in London. One month later, 29,999 of them have become infected with a disease that turns them into mindless zombies - but zombies that can run super fast and are agile and strong.

    Only one test... read more subject - Angela Mills (MyAnna Buring) - shows no symptoms of the virus. Cole (Craig Fairbrass), the company's strongarm, is sent to retrieve her and find out why the virus hasn't affected her - and he's running out of time, because he's been infected as well.

    Meanwhile, Angela and her friends are heading for a helicopter to meet with her brother Matt (Bart Ruspoli) and escape the city. They meet up with Cole, and as it is with every zombie movie, we're treated to how people react to one another in a very stressful situation as they try to survive and make it out of London.

    I love zombie flicks, but I've seen some horrible ones. This one isn't one of them. The characters are well-developed and more than just one-dimension, the storyline (although it has connections to "Resident Evil") is engaging, and the zombies are cool. Watching how the survivors turn on one another was entertaining because you actually grow to either love or hate the characters based on their actions. A great low-budget zombie flick all around.
  • blongca04
    April 26, 2012
    blongca04
    At first, British zombie entry "Devil's Playground" feels fairly run-of-the-mill, with a misguided medical corporation accidentally unleashing a biochemical that causes a fatal epidemic (see: "Resident Evil"), which causes super-powered zombies to ravage London (see: "28 Days Lat... read moreer"), and leaves humanity's last hope resting in the genetics of a single person who shows immunity to the disease (see: "I Am Legend"). While this film definitely draws heavy inspiration from the movies that came before it, the high-quality execution of "Devil's Playground" allows it to transcend the typical, ripped-off mash-ups that saturate the market.

    For the rest of my review, check out my film review blog: http://filmsallthetime.blogspot.com
  • mistachy
    December 14, 2010
    mistachy
    This movie is very aggravating to watch, seriously. The audio is chalk board screeching irritating. In addition to that, stuff just happens to make this movie seem so unrealistic, but for some strange reason, I kept watching it. I didn't enjoy it though.

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John Anderson
April 4, 2011
John Anderson, Variety

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