Less a horror movie than a drama/thriller that uses the idea of zombies to nice effect. Written by Hatem Khraiche. Directed by Manuel Carballo. Starring Kris Holden-Ried, Emily Hampshire, Claudia Bassols, Shawn Doyle, and Melina Matthews.
The story: in a world where a zombie outbreak has happened, humans have developed a drug that if given to an infected person soon enough will keep the zombie virus dormant. However, the supplies are running low and people are beginning to panic. This is the story of a doctor (Hampshire) whose husband (Holden-Reid) has become infected and is trying to keep the virus dormant long enough for a synthetic solution to be developed.
Was it good?
Yeah. It wasn't great, but it was solid with a lot of stuff worth watching. The concept is a great twist on the classic zombie concept that focuses more on the characters than on gore. The acting is all very good, the directing solid and they do a lot with the concept, having a black market and the shortages and groups of people who are violently anti-zombie. It's definitely worth watching especially if you are looking for something a bit different than other zombie movies.
So why only a rental? Well, partially because there is some clumsy plotting toward the end and honestly, while the movie isn't really about zombies the concept is about zombies and there definitely should have been more with them. This movie took the easy way out in many ways dealing with the zombie infection and could have been much, much more interesting. The main reason, however, is the story's lack of depth. While it is more character oriented, there isn't a lot of emotion and while there are some interesting plot-elements with the lack of the antidote, none of them really investigate the characters. Compare that to, say, CLOVERFIELD, where there is a story about a man trying to save his relationship with the girl he loves and then the monster arrives and now he has to save her from a bigger, external threat. Or SCREAM which has a teen girl unsure she trusts her boyfriend enough to have sex and then he is accused of being a serial killer and she has to decide to trust him or not. See these stories set up a parallel that allows them to use the external concept to explore an internal concept. That's how they are able to get emotion out of their stories. Here, there just isn't anything. So while the story is interesting, it also starts to feel a bit flat.
Still, for the strong concept, good acting and clever plotting, I think it's worth a RENTAL.
