Director: Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken
Year: 2023
Country: Norway
Alternate Titles: Prosjekt Z
Genre: Zombie; Horror/Comedy
Plot:
Arriving in the deep Norwegian wilderness, a film crew attempting to shoot a new zombie film is disrupted by several strange occurrences around them following a meteorite landing in the hills nearby, but the more they stay there their personal lives are interrupted by a special visitor that turns the shoot into a nightmare.
Review:
This was a pretty enjoyable and likable genre effort. One of the finer features of this one is the general comedic nature of the opening film shoot which sets everything up quite nicely. With the general vibe being the artistically-driven director trying to make something profound out of a cheesy genre concept with the way they’re trying to play off what goes on in the script ranging from actors being questionable about the scenes they’re shooting, the crew second-guessing the conditions or material needed for a scene, or the various professionals bring ing up what they’re doing on-set, it all ends up painting a fine picture of the type of shoot taking place. This is mainly done with a comedic mindset as the questioning of the situation is usually coming from a genuine place for how the script is going only to get brushed aside by the youthful bliss of the director pressing them on, and with some generally fun behind-the-scenes situations also taking place the film manages to be a rather fun setup.
This continues with the filming that goes on with the film developing into a series of comedic misadventures with the cast’s inability to execute anything to plan resulting in numerous retakes, rewrites, and general frustration boiling over. Going from the botched car ride where no one can perform right, the house attack with the zombies unable to see their marks due to the make-up being utilized and the cut-scenes with the cast complaining to their significant others about the lacking film shoot, the general vibe presented here is the director in over her head and trying to keep the project going which is a good sight to see with the project being filmed looking like a cheesy fun time when it’s not being screwed up. It all leads into the fun finale where it manages to finally turn the fake film into the real thing with a rather enjoyable and likable setup involving the returning creatures from the beginning of the film and infecting what’s going on in a rather intriguing manner that upends the film shoot into a more energetic series of encounters that have some impressive effects-work to go along into a solid enough effort.
There’s not much to hold this one back but it does have some minor issues. The main drawback to the film is the need for this one to be a found-footage effort which doesn’t feel like it’s earned most of the time with what’s going on. The majority of the footage being shot by the assistant doesn’t need to be done to film the scenes since it keeps shifting the persona frequently so there’s not a consistent throughpoint to figure out what’s going on. Several scenes are fine in this format but way too much of the film is unnecessarily shot in this manner so characters are referencing stuff that’s happened but they aren’t privy to beyond saying they’ve seen it off-camera or coming across something that needs context that doesn’t have it since it’s not being captured by the main figure. This can cause the film to be a bit lackluster as a result since the found-footage format brings this upon the film when it would’ve been fine as a straight film, especially with the bland and uninteresting off-camera hook-ups and relationship squabbles that don’t need to be there also holding this one down.
Overview: ***.5/5
An enjoyable enough effort with some issues, that those minor issues are generally based on the filming format that it’s presented in allows this one to be quite fun and enjoyable for the most part. Those who are fans of this approach, are hardcore zombie fanatics, or appreciate found footage will have the most to like here while most others out there should heed caution with this one.
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