Overall, I felt this was a fun watch. I enjoyed that there was some comic relief, great camera work, sound design and music was really enjoyable. I did feel there were several plot holes that it would have been nice to have cleared up though. I'll go into more detail below, but if you don't want spoilers, I feel this is worth a watch. You can tell everyone involved really worked hard and cared about this project. It really felt like it was inspired by something like Centralia, PA and The Crazies.
Spoilers past this point.
This film had a lot of fun ideas that I think could have used more fleshing out. I forgive a lot due to this being a low budget film, but story is something that I think really needed some work. It was overall a good story and clearly had some holes that needed filled. A minor one is that Mike seems to go into the middle of nowhere in upstate New York, but it's not really clear how Dan knows where to find him. We assume directions were somehow given to him, but this is not shown. Again, this is minor though and I don't think really takes away from story. Another minor issue is that Dan is really not dressed for this, but this could just be because I get cold really easily, but it was snowing, so at least a bigger jacket would have been a good idea. At one point he passes a sign that says "Willowvale Harbor" but if this was some big government coverup, you'd think they'd destroy that sign. I grew up not far from Site R in Maryland and it is very locked down. If there were zombies like creatures loose with something like a rage virus, then you'd think it'd be more like The Crazies where the government would be taking them out. It seems more that this area was supposed to be abandoned. A couple other things that were a bit confusing, at one point Dan is running from some of the zombies and it's night, but then later he's running and it's day. Are we supposed to assume he was running all night? At this point though he finds a place to hide and rest, though it's not clear how he got away from them, he has a dream that we find is like a memory. It seems he got away as a baby, but I can accept that this area might have some supernatural aspects. There's a part later where his sister seems to move some things with her mind. This is where we find out that Dan was born here and he was immune to the virus and everyone else had to stay and suffer and they'd been trying to find him. This part also lost me a bit. It seems they knew where he was and made an effort to lure him in. If they knew where he was and who his friends were, then why not just go get him? Even with that point, if he might have had a cure in his blood, then couldn't they tell him and take some samples?
Now, I know this all seems really critical and I only say this because I feel this group really could do some amazing stuff in the future. They had the outline of a great story and even reference Romero and Night of the Living Dead; clearly an inspiration. You really feel those vibes, especially with Dan being killed at the end just like how Night of the Living Dead ends. I enjoyed the nostalgia with the floppy disks. The nutty conspiracy theorist friend was fun. The acting was good, though there were areas for improvement with some of the more minor characters. The area they used to film was really good and really felt isolated and creepy. If this could have a tighter script to fill in those holes, then I think this would really improve the overall movie.
Spoilers past this point.
This film had a lot of fun ideas that I think could have used more fleshing out. I forgive a lot due to this being a low budget film, but story is something that I think really needed some work. It was overall a good story and clearly had some holes that needed filled. A minor one is that Mike seems to go into the middle of nowhere in upstate New York, but it's not really clear how Dan knows where to find him. We assume directions were somehow given to him, but this is not shown. Again, this is minor though and I don't think really takes away from story. Another minor issue is that Dan is really not dressed for this, but this could just be because I get cold really easily, but it was snowing, so at least a bigger jacket would have been a good idea. At one point he passes a sign that says "Willowvale Harbor" but if this was some big government coverup, you'd think they'd destroy that sign. I grew up not far from Site R in Maryland and it is very locked down. If there were zombies like creatures loose with something like a rage virus, then you'd think it'd be more like The Crazies where the government would be taking them out. It seems more that this area was supposed to be abandoned. A couple other things that were a bit confusing, at one point Dan is running from some of the zombies and it's night, but then later he's running and it's day. Are we supposed to assume he was running all night? At this point though he finds a place to hide and rest, though it's not clear how he got away from them, he has a dream that we find is like a memory. It seems he got away as a baby, but I can accept that this area might have some supernatural aspects. There's a part later where his sister seems to move some things with her mind. This is where we find out that Dan was born here and he was immune to the virus and everyone else had to stay and suffer and they'd been trying to find him. This part also lost me a bit. It seems they knew where he was and made an effort to lure him in. If they knew where he was and who his friends were, then why not just go get him? Even with that point, if he might have had a cure in his blood, then couldn't they tell him and take some samples?
Now, I know this all seems really critical and I only say this because I feel this group really could do some amazing stuff in the future. They had the outline of a great story and even reference Romero and Night of the Living Dead; clearly an inspiration. You really feel those vibes, especially with Dan being killed at the end just like how Night of the Living Dead ends. I enjoyed the nostalgia with the floppy disks. The nutty conspiracy theorist friend was fun. The acting was good, though there were areas for improvement with some of the more minor characters. The area they used to film was really good and really felt isolated and creepy. If this could have a tighter script to fill in those holes, then I think this would really improve the overall movie.
