The film opens up with Madsen narrating as to the cause of the infection: Deer, tics, birds, blood-borne pathogens, inevitable. Later we find out the infection is a mutant strain of Lyme's disease. We then get a quick scene that looks similar to the farmhouse attack in "Night of the Living Dead" followed by "12 hours earlier."
The reason this film does that is because the build up is super slow. Louis Hartley (Michael Madsen) and Dr. Edward Dennehey (William Forsythe) are on vacation in cabins of the woods of Connecticut near East Lyme. They are there to bond with their sons... and get some hunting in. We get to meet wives, girlfriends, neighbors, some people in the woods, and the sick granny who bites the doctor (guess where this goes?)
There are time consuming scenes of cooking venison steaks on an open flame and washing them down with the local Narragansett beer, topped off by drinking cognac from a screw top bottle (seriously?). The real action doesn't pick up until the film is half over. About 10 minutes from the end, the film is at a point I had wished it would have been 10 minutes from the beginning.
This is not a zombie film per se. The infected people can talk, lie, and have periods of remission where they act normal. Severe symptoms vary from the time of infection. It doesn't take a head shot to kill the infected people as they are not undead.
One would think a film with metal music, Madsen, and zombie like creatures would rate a full five stars, no questions asked. It moved way too slow and the characters weren't written that well.
Parental Guide: F-bombs, near sex, nudity (Kristi Lynn, kickboxing black belt)
Safety Note: When working with hot metal as a blacksmith, wear a shirt no matter how cool it looks on the big screen.
The reason this film does that is because the build up is super slow. Louis Hartley (Michael Madsen) and Dr. Edward Dennehey (William Forsythe) are on vacation in cabins of the woods of Connecticut near East Lyme. They are there to bond with their sons... and get some hunting in. We get to meet wives, girlfriends, neighbors, some people in the woods, and the sick granny who bites the doctor (guess where this goes?)
There are time consuming scenes of cooking venison steaks on an open flame and washing them down with the local Narragansett beer, topped off by drinking cognac from a screw top bottle (seriously?). The real action doesn't pick up until the film is half over. About 10 minutes from the end, the film is at a point I had wished it would have been 10 minutes from the beginning.
This is not a zombie film per se. The infected people can talk, lie, and have periods of remission where they act normal. Severe symptoms vary from the time of infection. It doesn't take a head shot to kill the infected people as they are not undead.
One would think a film with metal music, Madsen, and zombie like creatures would rate a full five stars, no questions asked. It moved way too slow and the characters weren't written that well.
Parental Guide: F-bombs, near sex, nudity (Kristi Lynn, kickboxing black belt)
Safety Note: When working with hot metal as a blacksmith, wear a shirt no matter how cool it looks on the big screen.