Paramount Pictures recently provided a 15 minute preview of their new film World War Z. The film is based upon the novel World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, written by Max Brooks. From what has been shown, the film will focus on “The Great Panic”, the title given to the original surge of the outbreak.

From my brief glimpse of World War Z there is one thing I learned, it is intense. The movie has a completely different feel to it than other zombie films and the feel it does give off is terrifying. The zombies in the film are insane, World War Z finally demonstrated what the ‘Z’ stands for – Zerg. The director, Marc Forster, certainly has no qualms with throwing waves of zombies at every problem, rather than shamble, or even run, they act like a tidal wave of carnage. The fact that the zombies don’t care about their own bodies furthers the feeling of overwhelming chaos. World War Z has got an uphill battle to prove that swarms can be horrifying, the most frightening part of the sequence shown was wondering if Brad Pitt had the macro to effectively manage the swarm.

Unlike more traditional zombie films, which relied on a sparse spattering of zombies throughout the film to drive the tension up, World War Z focuses on the true size of the world’s population and what would happen if it turned on you, giving off a sense of unbridled panic rather than a creeping sense of fear. World War Z is set to prove itself different from other zombie films. Whether it will appeal to fans of traditional zombie horror, used to a less action packed and more suspenseful affair, remains to be seen but the film is definitely unique in the terror it brings. Essentially, World War Z combines the horror of zombies with the unstoppable destructive force of natural apocalypse movies.

From the small amount of footage seen, the film seems to be fast paced, and consistently so. The action scenes are broken up by scenes of discussion and contemplation, only to be quickly dispelled by another battle. World War Z blends the pace with the story well, giving the audience as much time to think as the characters, and it’s not long.

All in all, World War Z seems to be on a much larger scale than typical zombie movies. More of the world is seen affected, characters travel long distances and those that fight are not a small band of survivors, but more akin to a resistance force. For once you don’t have to assume that the world off-screen is in chaos because in World War Z, you see it for yourself…and it is horrifying.

World War Z bursts into Australian theatres June 20th. Check out the trailer below for a glimpse of the chaos.