Expiration (2011) User Reviews

well made

[mark-mcburney-1313 · 6/10 · 12 October 2013]

This is a well made and well acted film though the sound editing almost ruins it. At times it is nigh on impossible to hear what the actors are saying because the music is so loud and playing over the dialogue in far too many scenes.

However, the story is quite well thought out in both premise and execution, the setting obviously helped with the small budget. The actors were very good in their roles even if the story limited any real examination of their characters.

I rated it as a six which may seem high considering the sound problems but I would look forward to seeing any future films from the same writer, director and a few of the actors.

Really good fun

[sandiglendinning · 6/10 · 28 May 2013]

To me this film has the feel of a computer game and I found it really entertaining. It feels kind of like Half Life meets Resident Evil mashed up a bit with 28 Days later and maybe a smattering of Cube!

For it's ridiculously low budget this movie is done incredibly well and is awfully good fun. The cast is small, the set sparse but the ideas are interesting and provide enough mystery and momentum to push a plot along for a couple of hours without any trouble at all.

It takes a real creative mind to figure out a away to make something happen with so little money even on just a technical level alone it's impressive for this reason. The antagonists are gooey, gross and generally unpleasant. There is suspense, gore and an attempt at an intelligent back story. You could really do a lot of worse than giving this a go if you are a horror or sci-fi fan, just go for it and have a giggle.

WE NEED MORE TEST SUBJECTS

[nogodnomasters · 6/10 · 4 August 2018]

A company called Gentek is doing experiments on people. 4 people sign up for the experiment. They are:

1) William Hunter (Brandon Auret) is an ex-policeman. We later find out he has alcohol and cigarette addictions. He provides for inner conflict. 2) Jake Butler (Ryan Macquet) has brain cancer. 3) Samantha Foxx (Ingeborg Riedmaier) is a waitress with asthma. 4) Dominic Black (Michael Thompson) is the brains in the group. He is in a wheel chair.

The four are administered a drug and wake up somewhat free from their disorders. They are in a multilevel abandoned hospital type building with no knowledge as to what is going on. They are B-15 test subjects.

The subplot consists of a B-14 test subject and an intruder running around with armed security attempting to grab them. It appears the one test subject has razor sharp teeth, a killer instinct, and some type of regenerative property.

Both you and the B-15 test subjects try to figure out what is going on from the clues. To be honest, I was fooled as I went down the direction they lead me, ignoring other factors which I wrote off.

The film was interesting, but the set was dull. Even though it was a horror/action/mystery/thriller I was bored during some of the middle action. The characters were a bit lame, but later I found out that was by design. Not a bad rental. More cerebral than some horror films.

Parental Guide: F-bombs. No sex or nudity.

A familiar kind of story

[Leofwine_draca · 2/10 · 14 March 2018]

RANCID is a tiny budget indie thriller from South Africa. The plot has tinges of science ficiton here and there and involves four people who sign up for medical experiments but get more than they bargained for. It's an old story with the usual setting of a remote installation with little in the way of set-up or explanation, just a great deal of characters creeping around in the dark. I found it all quite dull.

Skip this turkey!

[rrcharpe · 11 April 2013]

I was hopeful when I began watching this South African produced horror/mystery movie but realized several minutes into it that one of the previous reviewers on IMDb (there were only two before I wrote this one) had nailed it when they mentioned that the total cost of the movie was around 200,000 dollars or less, and boy did this movie reflect that low, low budget. First of all it was a shame that there wasn't a better script because the one redeeming quality of the movie was the four primary actors (three men and one woman) who were actually quite good and very professional in their drama skills. However, the movie chugged along slowly and was quite out of focus throughout, making it a real chore to stick it out to the end. Overall I would give this movie a 3/10 only because of the four excellent actors. The director gets a 0/10 and whoever wrote this script will hopefully not get another chance to bore me (and others) to tears. StocktonRob

Totally Rancid!

[honeybloggs-69648 · 1/10 · 30 December 2021]

It is excruciatingly slow . The acting , script , directing , photography are all appallingly bad . The extent of the 'special effects' is blood on the character's face .

The actors playing guards can't even handle a gun convincingly . The entire film is very amateurish. It seems as though a bunch of friends were bored on a Sunday afternoon, and on a whim they decided to shoot a film . So, They pooled their pennies together, quickly wrote a script and shot the film in an empty warehouse nearby .The only thing worse than this film , would be Rancid 2 !

Well done, effective South African horror film that has quite a nice wrap up.

[Thrill_KillZ · 7/10 · 22 March 2013]

This is by far one of the best films I've seen lately, not just in horror, but in also in the sub-genre of zombie mutation/insane experimentation. It's a film where the viewer doesn't quite need much more info than given in that four people respond to a newspaper ad for a medical experiment paying $250,000 for a five day stay in their private secure medical base. Two participants came looking for a cure & two came looking for a pay day. It's not long at all before the outright horror of it all boils to the surface and a nightmarish pace in set as these few participants fight to stay alive & out of the sight of some of the previous groups experimental failures, genetically mutated & filled with rage. Any issue or unrealistic thought that I may have had was all neatly wrapped up in a surprise ending that will no doubt leave any horror fan with a smile on their face. Also for a South African film with a mere $70k budget this film is produced very well, there wasn't any point or any scenes that suffered from budget restrictions. It's been a long while since I've seen a good horror/zombie film that I could actually give a good review to & actually recommend it as a rental choice to any horror fan and not for the lack of trying (30-40 forgettable films in the the last month alone). This one is a taker. 7/10

A South African film with a Difference

[cockontheblock69 · 10/10 · 4 September 2012]

The story focuses on a group of participants who sign up for a mysterious medical treatment that promises to cure all their ailments. After taking a sedative, they wake up and they are all cured, but like all things in horror films, when something is too good to be true for the characters, it generally is.

The film uses stylish cinematography (The fact that this was shot on a consumer stills camera baffles me) and gritty surveillance footage to weave a tale of strange government testing.

What Alastair Orr and his production team has done here on this budget is nothing short of amazing. This does not look like a film that was made for R500k (That's less than $70K). It looks absolutely amazing. The acting is generally pretty decent, the make-up is great. The script kind of loses itself a bit but the general concept holds strong.

This is not your typical South African film and its great to see filmmakers having the balls, even if they don't have the budget, to do something a little different in a country that only supports crappy Afrikaans films that would be laughed off the international stage.

Hopes dashed

[Mikelikesnotlikes · 6/10 · 19 October 2016]

I did a small amount of research into this film before watching to make sure I wasn't wasting my time and found a lot of positive comments about it. I do understand it was made on a tight budget.

At first I was engaged and interested but quickly began to lose interest. Firstly, the time stamp on the CCTV footage was always the same. I found that extremely distracting and something that should have been picked up and corrected.

Then there was the mistreatment of one of the 'participants' near the start. Something that could skew their results of the experiment. The scientist in me was dubious that the company would go to that much expense and then employ such incompetent security.

There was no explanation of why some of the previous 'participants' were still roaming around the test area in an unstable and dangerous state. There were perfect opportunities to do so using the voice over CCTV footage. I could think of several ways to cover this.

The pacing slowed way the hell down when it was supposed to be ramping up. They characters seemed to run around in a circle. There was no progression. They never tried to plan and act to move the plot along.

There were a few other glaring inconsistencies that had nothing to do with budget - more to do with poor scripting. The less money you have the cleverer you need to be with the dialogue.

Acting was pretty good, as was wardrobe and equipment (no plastic guns). The zombies were very believable and make-up was excellent.

Give it a bash if you're bored. It gets a 'could have been better' from me.

A good, original horror film with realistic characters.

[nzswanny · 7/10 · 18 June 2017]

2011's Expiration, also known as Rancid, is a low budget horror film about a medical test that goes wrong. The participants don't know what the medical test is about, they're just doing it for the money. Instead of a leading role, we have all the perspectives of the participants as they experience the test and start to realize that it is no ordinary one. Brandon Auret and Ingeborg Riedmaier are the best performances in this film, displaying realistic emotion and understanding their own roles and the situation their characters are in.

The film is good to the horror genre and uses claustrophobia and shock value to please the horror film fan, but this film also has realistic characters with pros and cons in order to keep moving the story forward. The characters act realistically to their situation and are forced with obstacles and tasks to survive, revealing their personality inside and their instincts. Alastair Orr did a good job with the small bit of security-camera cinematography in the film, and most of the cinematography in the second half of the film was really good considering their equipment, but the first half's cinematography could of been a bit better, I think.

A good film I recommend that will leave you asking questions in every scene. My only real problem with this movie is that I think the film could of been a bit slower paced so we could of built up more tension to the scary moments. Recommended, overall I'd rate this a 7.1/10. Sorry if the review was too short, but I didn't want to spoil anything...

Cool Little Film

[katiecruise9982861423 · 10/10 · 11 April 2013]

Don't watch this film if you're expecting a high budget Hollywood film. This movie was made for very little and is a fine example of what can be done on a micro budget. Give it a shot with what can be done with very little. Some inventive directing covers an interesting little story. The camera style on the budget is pretty admirable and I would like to see what could be done from these guys on a bigger budget. The story takes an interesting look at 4 applicants that sign up for a a bizarre medical test that has dire consequences. The zombies are dealt with in a unique way and the explanation to the test has a cool reveal. Give it a shot - but it is very, very low budget.

Surprisingly little gem from a talented director.

[sicklittlebunny · 9/10 · 3 October 2020]

5:38:44 Once you see it, you can't unsee it!

Really enjoyable film. I've watched it a couple of times and it's still interesting. Well thought out and well made. You can tell it was made on a shoestring budget from the lack of unnecessary special effects and CGI, but this doesn't take anything from the film. In fact, the gritty realism of the filming adds to the atmosphere and shows what can be done when a studio can't rely on F/X to hold an audience's interest.