Zombies from Sector 9 (2020) by Rob Ceus


Director: Rob Ceus
Year: 2020
Country: Belgium
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Zombie

Plot:
Working by his loner credo in life, a man finds his world turned upside down when a power plant accident nearby causes the residents of his hometown to turn into ravenous, flesh-eating zombies, forcing him to band together to get his family to safety away from the undead hordes and the raiders in the area.

Review:

Overall, this was a pretty solid indie-styled effort. The fact that this one tends to really showcase a wild and reckless storyline that serves more as showcase a relentless series of gore-gags and encounters with the zombies gives this a lot to like. The bare minimum of a storyline here, about the plague running through the area following the plant accident and the madness that results here, is what’s to be expected as the secondary subplots involving the military trying to control the area in order to find a cure or defending his family from the biker gang all come at the expense at more encounters with zombie and more low-budget gore. Though at times making this seem random and somewhat chaotic, that there’s tons of action here as a result is a great deal more important as the action makes for a blindingly quick pace.

As mentioned, this amount of action and confrontation with zombies here manages to provide this with a rather impressive amount of blood and gore. Filled with melting bodies, flesh bitten into and ripped off in strips, zombies playing with removed intestines and entrails, limbs getting removed or victims getting gnawed on until they’re nothing but skeletons, the human victims here get brutalized quite extensively which is rather effective for how they’re realized. As well, the decrepit and scarred zombies fare just as well with all the usual manners of dispatching them shown here where it effectively works as a special effects showpiece reel focusing on all the encounters here. Alongside the films’ courage to continuously put children in danger and not making them untouchable, there’s a lot to like in the film.

There are a couple of minor factors present here. The main issue is the aforementioned plotless feel of the film, where it comes off as a random assortment of scenes vaguely resembling what would happen in a zombie apocalypse in order to get to the next gore-gag. That might not be a true detrimental issue for some but it does make the film seem aimless and rambling at points, focusing on a random assortment of people encountering the creatures in various points with no further ulterior purpose to them. As well, there are continuous reminders about the low-budget limitations on display that might deter some from this one, especially as the gore looks great yet the zombies themselves look pretty ridiculous and obviously cheap make-up. Otherwise, there’s not much wrong here.


Overview: ***/5
A generally solid and enjoyable low-budget zombie effort, there’s quite a lot to like here although it does tend to feature some obvious and at times somewhat limiting issues that can hold this back. Give it a look if you’re curious about this kind of film or a hardcore lover of indie zombie films, while viewers who don’t appreciate or enjoy that style should heed extreme caution.

Comments