Director: Gustavo Hernandez
Year: 2022
Country: Argentina/Uruguay
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Zombie
Plot:
Trying to go about their lives, a woman takes her daughter with her to work looking after an abandoned gym when they encounter a strange viral outbreak that turns the infected into ravenous zombies and must rely on each other and other survivors they encounter along the way to survive.
Review:
This was a pretty enjoyable and fun zombie effort. Among the more impressive aspects here is a strong central storyline that manages to inject a bit of creativity and uniqueness into the zombie genre. While the exploits, in general, are nothing new involving the outbreak of a virus that mutates people into flesh-eating ghouls, this one at least manages to interject the idea of an act of violence being committed rendering the subject incapacitated for thirty-two seconds before they’re able to recover and continue the attack. This is quite a unique touch that makes the film feel far more clever and original by actually managing to incorporate a detriment to the infection beyond simply turning them into insane, ruthless bloodthirsty killers. When done in conjunction with a rather endearing and heartwarming setup of the mother/daughter relationship while at work, this comes off rather nicely overall.
That allows for a series of rather fun and thrilling encounters with the infected throughout here. The initial encounters inside the abandoned building that she’s guarding include several surprising ambushes of the creatures rushing after her or seeing them coming through the hallways towards her on the security camera footage offering some great bits of suspense not knowing what’s going on or why they’re behaving in this manner. The series of encounters and confrontations seen throughout here, from the scenes in the locker room attempting to sneak past the creatures inside who aren’t aware of her presence to the ingenious escape from the pool using smoke bombs as cover, provide this one with a nice series of zombie action here. The finale, offering a solid series of chases and encounters to get out of the building while being chased relentlessly by the zombies through the building and out adds a lot to like with this one as the rabid action and brutality makes for a fine ending note. These are what hold this one up for the most part.
The film does have some drawbacks to it. The biggest issue here is that there’s not much else in the way of originality from the film beyond the idea of the incapacitation of the zombies after introducing the concept of their behavioral condition. The group being stuck in a location with various issues to have to deal with and a swarm of zombies surrounding them preventing their escape, this doesn’t really do much to differentiate itself from the horde of other types of films with the various action scenes seen throughout here. That also goes along rather well with the rather flimsy and lame means through which the discovery of the behavioral tick involving the virus rendering them inactive after committing an act of violence, which seems to be a fine idea in concept but doesn’t come off in execution with any kind of realism. It just seems more like a way to interject the idea into the film and really doesn’t feel like an organic way of discovering the ability. Overall, these are really the main issues to be had with this one.
Overview: ***.5/5
Far better than expected but still with some flaws, this is an enjoyable enough zombie effort with a lot to like about it which is more than enough to hold the film up over a series of minor yet detrimental flaws. Those who are intrigued by this one or a fan of the genre, in general, will appreciate this one the most while most others who aren’t into this kind of style should heed caution.
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