Hmmmm. HMMMMMMM. Hmmmm. Here we have a seriously flawed gem.
This is a “slice of life” zombie movie. Two ex-ballplayers wander around New England trying to survive after a zombie apocalyse. Like a lot of these sorts of movies, this falls within the long shadow cast by “The Walking Dead” but among those movies it’s top of the heap. Had it been an episode of the show, it would have been a cult favorite.
It’s probably the most realistic of this sort of movie that I’ve seen. The characters are basically assholes, totally realistic. The movie follows them around and lingers on prosaic details… very long, several-minute-long shots of just them brushing their teeth, stuff like that. But it works.
It does have a narrative arc of sorts, but as a slice of life, it doesn’t really come to the satisfying ending I wanted, which makes it hard to say I liked it. But getting there… hmmmmmm. It’s original, for sure. And good enough I don’t really want to give any spoilers. It seldom goes where you’d expect, and better, for a lot of it, it’s hard to even know what to expect, which is a little strange for a movie where not much actually happens.
And the acting and production are good, definitely way better than these sorts of movies usually are, which helps. Again, somewhere around the top of post-“The Walking Dead” zombie movies, in most respects.
It’s not a great movie, for sure, but good, and gets better as it goes along, even if ultimately not quite satisfying. And probably worth remembering. I wish the ending was better. But… it was good. And definitely a little bit different than anything else.
Plus, the soundtrack is a bunch of pretty cool roots/Americana, unfortunately tipping slightly towards the Modest Mouse side of indie that I never cared for much, but overall it’s pretty good and it helps.
I’d say, if you’re in the mood for this sort of movie, definitely worth a watch, if you’re ready for something… very adequate, plus just a slight bit more above that.
Amazingly, I read afterwards, the budget for this film was $6,000. Not that it looks like it cost more than $6,000, but, he must have gotten a talented cast and crew to work for free. It’s much, much better than anything like your typical zero-budget film.