I have to be honest, with the film’s plot and the American release artwork I sat down to watch Sniper Corpse expecting to spend a good deal of my time laughing. And not because it was an intentional comedy either. Instead what I got was a surprisingly good film that combined elements of Romero’s Day Of The Dead with Universal Soldier. It also made me think of another recent British film Soldier Of War for that matter.

Sniper Corpse opens in Riga, Latvia where for some reason British troops are fighting a drug cartel. It’s last two members are preparing to escape when a shadow figure turns up. A figure that seems to be able to shrug off large numbers of bullets. A brief glance at his face explains why.

After the credits, we meet Diane Keeley (Eleri Jones). Her husband is officially listed as killed in action, but his body has vanished, one of several similar cases. She wants answers and gets steered in the direction of a secret military project. She finds her answers as well as Dr. Craybrick (Tony Eccles) who’s quite willing to kill to keep the project alive, even if its subjects are undead.

Writer/director Keith R. Robinson (Silverhide, The Lost Mission) has crafted a film that has a surprising amount of emotional impact. Diane dealing with her husband’s death and what she finds when she looks for answers. And from some of the walking dead themselves. The ones who still retain some memories and can at least partially understand what’s been done to them. Some of the dialogue is a bit clunky, but overall Sniper Corpse handles it quite well.

I suspect a lot of it is there though because the obviously low budget Snipr Corpse had limited how many action scenes they could afford. There is a fair amount of action, but there’s also longish stretches between some of them. They’re fairly well done, with effects that are a mix of practical and some bad CGI. Especially the helicopter that looks like it flew in from an early Playstation game.

It’s no classic, but Sniper Corpse is an engaging film that’s a lot better than it really has any right to be. It’s available from Other Dimension Films in the UK. In the US Cinema Epoch has retitled it Corpse Sniper and given it some of the worst poster art ever. You can also check its Facebook page for updates.