Rating: C+
Dir: Joey De Guzman
Star: Brandon Vera, Pepe Herrera, Mary Jean Lastimosa, Freya Fury Montierro
There is little new here in this Phillipino “zombie” film. Quotes used, since it’s very much from the 28 Days Later school: fast-moving creatures, with an infectious disease responsible, rather than the dead being reanimated. However, despite the lack of innovation, it does what it does with a decent degree of competence, and – eventually, at least – no small amount of energy. It begins in prison when former US special forces soldier Emon (Vera, looking like a house brand Bas Rutten) has been incarcerated for eight years. He has avoided trouble, mostly through being an intimidating mo-fo, and is looking forward to his upcoming parole and rejoining his wife Sheryl (Lastimosa) and deaf daughter Jane (Montierro) on the outside.
However, plans for an orderly release disintegrate, courtesy of the aforementioned epidemic, which explodes through Manilla like it was your digestive system after a poorly-considered street taco. Once the disease makes it into the jail, it’s about the worst possible place to be, so Emon escapes, along with prison sidekick Timoy (Herrera). They make their way through the perilous streets to the apartment where Sheryl and Jane are waiting, and dealing with problems of their own, e.g. trying to fend off people intent on eating their faces. Which is largely where we enter standard zombie flick territory: you just know someone known to them is going to get nibbled, and have to be put down, by removing the head or destroying the brain.
On that basis, this is probably a good decade past the point where it’s more than background entertainment. Everything that happens will be considerably more surprising to the characters than the viewer. Perhaps wisely, Emon is never given much in the way of dialogue, or even significant acting to do. He was a heavyweight fighter in the UFC, so it might be wise to keep the thesping required to a minimum. It’s not as if the square-jawed, taciturn hero dispensing violence is much of a stretch, but Vera is fine for it. I also liked the setting, with the cramped streets and buildings of Manila providing a nicely claustrophobic, dark, mazelike location. You can run, but you can’t hide.
It is sometimes blatantly obvious. The moment I saw Emon learning sign language to communicate with his daughter, I knew the zombies were going to be sound sensitive. And, oh look: they are. It becomes somewhat relevant, yet never feels like they use the idea to its full potential. Instead, the makers seem happy to take the easy and well-trodden route, albeit competently enough executed. It does appear to lean toward practical in terms of FX – or, at least, subtle enough CGI to pass muster. However, it’s only around the final twenty minutes where the movie commits fully to the mayhem, after stretches where it feels more in a holding pattern. Can’t say I felt I’d wasted the time. But that’s what Sunday afternoons are for anyway.