Julien Neaves – Editor
I have been watching horror movies ever since I was knee high to a Gremlin so I have seen a lot of them. Now there are many subgenres under the dark horror umbrella and over the years I have come to particularly favour (in no particular order) slasher, monster, comedy, psychological and zombie flicks. So when I saw a zombie drama by some young Trini folks (“Trini” is short for Trinidadians as in the Caribbean country Trinidad and Tobago #themoreyouknow) I just had to check that stuff out.
Which brings us to Infection Episode 1: Pass from K.O Media. It is set in a post-apocalyptic Trinidad ravaged by a zombie virus and we follow two survivors, Samuel Smith (Jason Kyle) and Renee Fisher (Samara Ramrattan), as they try to navigate their deadly environment.
The first thing that stands out is the zombie makeup effects by Renuka Singh. I thought they were pretty well done and some were quite gross looking. And I appreciate being disgusted when I see zombies. Is that weird? And the zombie actors appear briefly but I thought they did a good job playing the flesh-craving undead. These are your classic George Romero zombies and not your sprinting Dawn of the Dead remake/World War Z dead heads.
The few zombie kills were passable with the shots framed in a way where you don’t actually see those heads being smashed into, but you still know what is happening. The sound effects could have been a little more squelchy though.
The acting is nothing award worthy but it’s not the worst I have ever seen, big budget Hollywood films included. Kyle is a bit stiff in the performance department and he talks with something of a weird accent, or “hack-cent” (not a real word btw). And the character of Jason is a not-very-likeable coward, but that is how he was written and I presume it is the start of a redemption arc.
Rambarran was easily the better performer though she did have to deal with some awkward, clichéd dialogue. Her character of Renee was cool, composed, in control and quick to call Jason on his bovine excreta. This is someone I can root for and follow throughout this dangerous journey.
Plot wise there is nothing exactly ground breaking here and it is clearly influenced by previous zombie films, television shows and video games. There is the set up of Jason and his zombified relatives which I am interested in seeing how that develops. And of course seeing Renee smashing some zombie cabezas.
The cast and crew were clearly working with a limited budget. There are some audio issues and the subtitles, important for international audiences, cut out after a point. But you can tell there is a lot of passion for the project and the content. And there is evidence of talent both behind and in front of the camera. At the time of this article it has 36,600 views, which is no small potatoes, and it is deserving of getting some more eyes on it, especially with a cliffhanger of an ending. There are worst ways you could spend 25 minutes and 30 seconds. I for one will be down for Episode 2.
To check out Infection yourself you can click here. For my review of Trini three minute horror movie 19 you can click here. And for all our new Redmangoreviews articles you can check out our Facebook page here.
NB All photos courtesy of K.O Media.
Julien “Jules” Neaves is a TARDIS-flying, Force-using Trekkie whose bedroom stories were by Freddy Krueger, learned to be a superhero from Marvel, but dreams of being Batman. I love promoting Caribbean film, creating board games and I am an aspiring author. I say things like “12 flavours of awesome sauce”.
I can also be found posting on Instagram as redmanwriter and talking about TV and movie stuff on Facebook at Movieville.
Appreciate the honesty of your review. I read the review then watched the episode.
I’ve heard it’s the best policy 😉