Feed Me Light and Elastic Craft a Gloriously Gory Visual Feast for Dead Island 2 Opening Sequence

The wait is finally over for Dead Island fans and the team at Feed Me Light couldn’t have been more chuffed to partner with Elastic to bring this piece for Dead Island 2 to life. 

The thrilling title sequence defies all expectations of a traditional zombie apocalypse trailer. Surprisingly, it is devoid of undead creatures. Instead, filled with plenty of blood, gore and explosions to boot, the stunning visuals propel viewers into the aftermath of chaos and the potential to face even more. We pan around ominous scenes of a ravaged LA, throughout which the quiet remnants of humanity still linger. The trailer doesn't show viewers the cause of the chaos and so sparks both a natural curiosity about the events that were a precursor to it whilst also flaming our evolutionary desire and instincts to survive whatever lurks beyond our screens. 

The trailer’s director, Denis Bodart, ECD of Feed Me Light, remarks, “We wanted to allude to the presence of zombies, without showing them outright and show the horrors that could happen in a quiet yet beautiful stillness.” 

Denis Bodart, working with the incredible art direction of Nadia Tzuo, fleshes out a realistic cinematic hell-scape, exploring the hidden beauty of gore. Cerulean blue waters glisten in the Californian sun with pool floaties languidly bobbing along an ever-flowing river of blood, and a Ferris wheel twinkles over a plane crash with no survivors. Its bleak end is counterbalanced with a playful delivery. We find humour in contrasting leisure with disaster. Skewered eyeballs in an abandoned martini, an echoing voice that billows over explosive destruction and most notably, a fry cook that meets an unsavoury end. Beyond the mirage of Hollywood glamour lies something much more sinister. 

Like the game’s faithful followers, Deep Silver are equally excited. Their senior global brand manager, Nicolò Testi commented, “In our exciting Dead Island 2 rebranding journey at Deep Silver, this is definitely one of the assets that I’m most proud of. In partnership with Elastic and Feed Me Light we delivered an iconic title sequence that perfectly embodies the pulp mix of beauty and horror of our zombie apocalypse in L.A.” 

The trailer gets right to the beating heart of the horror genre - edge of the seat anticipation. Something which all Dead Island fans will greatly appreciate. The game, developed by Deep Silver and Dambuster studios, is available for pre-order and is set to release on April 21, 2023, launching for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC. So without further ado: we hope to see you in HELL-A soon!

Written by Larissa Robertson