This movie does come across as a bit of an homage to the George Romero horror classic, "Night of the Living Dead". The "good" is that the characters in the movie act and behave that people likely would in the face of a "zombie"outbreak. For the most part, they're slow to react, hampered by the disbelief that this is really happening. There are no "action hero" types, ruthlessly and efficiently mowing down their antagonists with an endless and ready supply of sophisticated semi-automatic weaponry. The characters in this movie can be clumsy under pressure. They don't faultlessly and effectively deal out lethal response with the cool efficiency of special forces operatives. They make mistakes. They refuse to believe what's happening to them, and that refusal to believe gets them killed.
The premise is nothing new. There's a Patient Zero from which the zombie plague springs. Zombies bite you, and you come back as a zombie. Survivors band together to pool resources and increase their chances of survival. Survivors, like our hero, are forced to salvage what they can. There is no steady, readily available supply of guns, ammunition, and running vehicles.
The "bad" with this movie lies in the execution. It was obviously made on a shoestring budget of a shoestring budget. The special effects are comically horrendous, and the acting is even worse. Whomever scored the music in the soundtrack should never be allowed to write or produce music again... ever. While some of the actions taken might mirror what may actually happen in such a catastrophic collapse of society, others are downright stupid. Why risk riding a bicycle in a search for useful materials and supplies when you have a functioning pick-up truck?
Then there's the soldier supposedly guarding a facility. He laments being relegated to the role as a Sentry, he longs to be at the forefront of the fight against the zombie horde... and he's only armed with a service pistol. Then, our Rambo wannabe gets the crap kicked out of him by an unarmed civilian who subsequently steals his uniform and equipment.
The movie is filmed in black and white, which was a smart move. The B&W format is much more forgiving of the God-awful special effects than a color format would be. It also lends to the bleakness that the film makers lwe're aiming for. The intent may have been good, but the execution was comically bad, and as the movie drags on, it just goes from bad to worse.
Apparently, the Thompson submachinegun has become standard issue for our armed forces again. Our hero, Tyler, laments that he has failed to protect his loved ones, and proclaims that he wants to go home. It would seem that Canada is on his way home, even though he lives in Florida. The road to Canada is blockaded by a single guard standing in the bed of a trailer that one might use to haul about lawn maintenance equipment. This guard is approached by half a dozen or so people seeking refuge. He denies them entry, and when they refuse to leave, he starts shooting.
There is virtually no continuity to this movie at all. Tyler has access to a working automobile. Then he's on foot. Sometime later, in an entirely different location, he has access to the exact same car again. Jessica, Tyler's friend, is armed with a crossbow. Then she has a Thompson submachinegun. Then she has a crossbow again, which she has no idea as to properly load. No one in this movie has ever actually used weapons of ANY kind before, and there was no technical support to show the actors how these weapons should be handled. In one scene, Jessica trains a Thompson submachinegun at an approaching zombie. She does this by putting the buttstock of the gun high on her face, right below her eye, and by hanging onto the stick magazine instead of the firearm's forestock. In another scene, our hero, Tyler, is in a trainyard being stalked by a zombie. The zombie gets the drop on Tyler and tackles him to the ground. Fortunately for Tyler, Jessica is nearby. She pulls the zombie off of Tyler... AND HE RUNS AWAY, LEAVING JESSICA TO FIGHT THE ZOMBIE THAT SHE HAD JUST SAVED HIM FROM, ALL BY HERSELF.
Then there's Jessica's daughter, who is there. Then she isn't. Then she is. Then she isn't. Then she is.
Remember the civilian who beat up the Sentry and stole his uniform and gear? Somehow, he passes himself off as a real soldier and becomes part of a security detail at a weapons and equipment depot. This imposter and Tyler argue, and Tyler threatens him with a walking stick... while the imposter has the muzzle of an AR-15 literally pressed against Tyler's chest. Later on, Tyler and the imposter get into THE most poorly staged fist fight in the history of cinema. They were reacting to blows that hadn't even been thrown yet.
Then again at the Florida/Canada border, Tyler takes refuge in a house. Is it his? I don't know. Hell, he said that he wanted to go home at one point in the movie, and he somehow ended up at the border to Canada. In this movie, Florida and Canada are neighboring territories. Poor Tyler is freezing, even though there are no signs of winter. He ain't in Canada, so he must be in the part of Florida that borders Canada, right?
This movie went from poor to terrible to just galactically farcical, and I turned it off with about 10 or 12 minutes left. I wonder if Tyler ever made his way home to Flornada, or Canlorida, or wherever the Hell that he was trying to get to.
The premise is nothing new. There's a Patient Zero from which the zombie plague springs. Zombies bite you, and you come back as a zombie. Survivors band together to pool resources and increase their chances of survival. Survivors, like our hero, are forced to salvage what they can. There is no steady, readily available supply of guns, ammunition, and running vehicles.
The "bad" with this movie lies in the execution. It was obviously made on a shoestring budget of a shoestring budget. The special effects are comically horrendous, and the acting is even worse. Whomever scored the music in the soundtrack should never be allowed to write or produce music again... ever. While some of the actions taken might mirror what may actually happen in such a catastrophic collapse of society, others are downright stupid. Why risk riding a bicycle in a search for useful materials and supplies when you have a functioning pick-up truck?
Then there's the soldier supposedly guarding a facility. He laments being relegated to the role as a Sentry, he longs to be at the forefront of the fight against the zombie horde... and he's only armed with a service pistol. Then, our Rambo wannabe gets the crap kicked out of him by an unarmed civilian who subsequently steals his uniform and equipment.
The movie is filmed in black and white, which was a smart move. The B&W format is much more forgiving of the God-awful special effects than a color format would be. It also lends to the bleakness that the film makers lwe're aiming for. The intent may have been good, but the execution was comically bad, and as the movie drags on, it just goes from bad to worse.
Apparently, the Thompson submachinegun has become standard issue for our armed forces again. Our hero, Tyler, laments that he has failed to protect his loved ones, and proclaims that he wants to go home. It would seem that Canada is on his way home, even though he lives in Florida. The road to Canada is blockaded by a single guard standing in the bed of a trailer that one might use to haul about lawn maintenance equipment. This guard is approached by half a dozen or so people seeking refuge. He denies them entry, and when they refuse to leave, he starts shooting.
There is virtually no continuity to this movie at all. Tyler has access to a working automobile. Then he's on foot. Sometime later, in an entirely different location, he has access to the exact same car again. Jessica, Tyler's friend, is armed with a crossbow. Then she has a Thompson submachinegun. Then she has a crossbow again, which she has no idea as to properly load. No one in this movie has ever actually used weapons of ANY kind before, and there was no technical support to show the actors how these weapons should be handled. In one scene, Jessica trains a Thompson submachinegun at an approaching zombie. She does this by putting the buttstock of the gun high on her face, right below her eye, and by hanging onto the stick magazine instead of the firearm's forestock. In another scene, our hero, Tyler, is in a trainyard being stalked by a zombie. The zombie gets the drop on Tyler and tackles him to the ground. Fortunately for Tyler, Jessica is nearby. She pulls the zombie off of Tyler... AND HE RUNS AWAY, LEAVING JESSICA TO FIGHT THE ZOMBIE THAT SHE HAD JUST SAVED HIM FROM, ALL BY HERSELF.
Then there's Jessica's daughter, who is there. Then she isn't. Then she is. Then she isn't. Then she is.
Remember the civilian who beat up the Sentry and stole his uniform and gear? Somehow, he passes himself off as a real soldier and becomes part of a security detail at a weapons and equipment depot. This imposter and Tyler argue, and Tyler threatens him with a walking stick... while the imposter has the muzzle of an AR-15 literally pressed against Tyler's chest. Later on, Tyler and the imposter get into THE most poorly staged fist fight in the history of cinema. They were reacting to blows that hadn't even been thrown yet.
Then again at the Florida/Canada border, Tyler takes refuge in a house. Is it his? I don't know. Hell, he said that he wanted to go home at one point in the movie, and he somehow ended up at the border to Canada. In this movie, Florida and Canada are neighboring territories. Poor Tyler is freezing, even though there are no signs of winter. He ain't in Canada, so he must be in the part of Florida that borders Canada, right?
This movie went from poor to terrible to just galactically farcical, and I turned it off with about 10 or 12 minutes left. I wonder if Tyler ever made his way home to Flornada, or Canlorida, or wherever the Hell that he was trying to get to.
