Director: Steven M. Smith
Year: 2021
Country: United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Zombie
Plot:
Following a spate of strange reports, a policeman attempting to retire and the rookie he’s training to replace him find that the reports involve their small-town being overrun by zombies unleashed by aliens as part of a diabolical alien invasion plot to take over the world forcing them to defend the village.
Review:
Overall, this was a pretty enjoyable effort. Among the better features here is the generally enjoyable setup that gets this going quite nicely. The early scenes where the policeman gives the new recruit a history and rundown of the town’s history while also teasing him about his lack of experience create some lighthearted moments while the background action of the townsfolk being attacked is featured. That this inadvertently offers up the early explanation for what’s happening by mentioning the original alien invasion scheme mentioned as an unforeseen sighting only to be ignored and forgotten about until the finale where it’s revealed as the true plan all along which is quite ingenious the way this all comes together.
That early setup here gives way to a rather fun series of action scenes involving the zombies. Featuring a tense encounter in the woods where they appear out of the woods to attack the couple, the later scenes of them appearing out of nowhere to swarm the hideout where they’re forced to barricade themselves against the creatures. This leads into a fun series of swarming-based encounters throughout the complex where the attempts to escape or recon the situation bring about confrontations with the hoarder of creatures allowing the group to be thinning out rather nicely. The finale, involving a rather fun blood-soaked shootout involving their dash to escape, gets a lot to like with the frenetic tempo and apocalyptic implications getting to showcase the fine make-up and gore for a lot to like here.
There are a few minor problems here. The main issue featured here is the somewhat illogical series of tactics displayed here which run counterproductive to escaping a zombie invasion. The constant splitting up and leaving the safety of the barricade to check on potential weapons caches stored nearby are asking for trouble, especially with the strange behavior of the zombies to break off the attacks to leave them alone. This feels more like contrivance than anything and causes some slight pacing issues to arise when they stop attacking. As well, the jarring sense of tone here is distracting, with the comedic outbursts and jokes flying in the face of the more serious zombie attacks which has a far different tone here, which alongside the low-budget limitations hold this down.
Overview: ***.5/5
A rather fun indie zombie film that has a lot to like about it, the positives featured here are more than enough to hold this up over the few minor flaws that do crop up. Fans of indie genre cinema, the United Kingdom scene as well as the creative crew, or zombie aficionados will have a lot to like while most others turned off by those negative features should heed caution here.
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