Director: Anthony C. Ferrante
Year: 2019
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Zombie
Plot:
Following an accident at sea, a boat owner comes to believe that a swarm of zombies mutated by a chemical spill undiscovered off the shore are being dropped on the residents of the area by an oncoming tsunami and tries to help them get to safety in the chaos.
Review:
Overall, this one was an absolute blast of an effort. One of the strongest aspects to like here is the utterly relentless nature of the action scenes featured here. The fact that the initial sequence that starts the invasion on the town, the discovery of the outbreak and the resulting tsunami that swallows up the zombies to dump them on the town, The image of seeing the creatures swallowed up in the massive wave and traveling along the crest of the water and following the boat as it tries to outrun it only to get caught up in the swarm and forced to seek shelter from the creatures that is quite impressive visually and conceptually. This is the biggest part of the film where the idea of what’s going on slowly gets crazier over time as it becomes aware of what’s going as the zombies are being transported from the sea to the shore.
On top of that, the film’s action content increases significantly once they arrive in town. The mini-battles and encounters with the zombies throughout the town offers up a stellar amount of action here, from the race to escape the beach filled with creatures and their reanimating victims as well as the beach-side commuters getting swarmed and pulled down around the village. Likewise, battles in the police station to stop the creatures or a series of thrilling encounters in a hospital that’s slowly being overrun by the creatures manages to bring out some tense moments as well as the crazy action with the various tactics trying to get away from the creatures. The resulting action inside on the rescue to get them out has some great fun as well, and sets the stage for the crazy finale featuring one main method of attacking the creatures and putting them down for good.
The other great aspect to the film is the solid technical aspects on display. The central storyline here manages to do something unique and original with the zombies as their sea-based setup causes some well thought-out wrinkles to their traditional setup. With the use of head-shots no longer having any effect on the zombies, the change to having electricity be the singular source of dismantling the creatures is a nice change that is given some rather fine backstory due to the massive conspiracy involving the cover-up. That’s also a rather intriguing cause here with the seeming setup of corruption turning out to provide this with some solid backstory here. As well, with the nautical setup here providing a running theme into the zombies’ make-up designs which is a solid touch and plenty of practical gore, there’s plenty to like overall here.
That said, there are some minor flaws featured here. As is to be expected in these kinds of efforts, the film’s biggest problem is the uniformly terrible CGI. There’s so much to like here with the practical effects for the zombies that when we see the CGI mess of them wandering through the scenery or seeing the blood-splatter spraying around, there’s a sense of disappointment here due to the drastic change in appearance. There’s way too much of it, especially in the final half where their over-the-top plan to not only stop the zombies but also to finally get the main ship underneath the water which is somewhat expected considering the setup featured but is still a prominent feature here. Beyond that, there isn’t much else to dislike here.
Overview: ****.5/5
Despite not going for the over-the-top nature of so much from the company’s past material, the continuous action and far more realistic storyline here manages to give this one much more of a realistic tone that’s quite appreciated. This is readily recommended for all fans of zombie films or those looking for another entry from the same team while those burned by their past output should still look at this considering the more realistic tone present.
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