Julien Neaves, Editor
Trinidad and Tobago post-apocalyptic zombie web series Infection, brought to us by the creative folks at K.O Media , dropped its latest episode just two days ago. This one is hot off the press folks! Hold on while I grab my mittens, and this is a good time to take a mild SPOILER ALERT out of the oven.
Episode 3: My Brother’s Keeper picks up directly after the previous episode with our survivors Samuel Smith (Jason Kyle) and Renee Fisher (Samara Ramrattan) taking refuge with the mysterious John Alexander aka Johnny (Julian Francis). The episode focus on an attack by scavenger leader Hector (Michael Clarke) and his gang as they seek revenge for the killing of Hector’s brother Max (Adonis Le Platte).
I’m a “good news, bad news” kind of guy, so let’s start with the positives. There is a decent build-up of tension leading up to the scavenger attack, and there is a scene where the vile gang are standing all together that was as chilling as any zombie attack.
I was also glad Samuel brought up Max’s odd, rage-infected transformation from the previous episode, and I do hope this is developed in future episodes. We also get some more background of Renee’s quest and a new destination for the survivors. The performance by Julian Francis as Johnny was also much improved compared to his previous appearances. And the action is decent enough, though the fight choreography and sound effects could have used some refining.
And now for the negatives. While Max was a terrific villain, and it was cool seeing him here again via flashback, his brother Hector, well, not so much. He talks like a henchman in one of those old kick-up (martial arts) films with the dialogue to match, and he lacks the menace and energy of his dearly departed bro. And Renee, the series’ best character, also gets sidelined this time around which was disappointing.
There are also some audio issues and instances of rough editing, but the two main issues are the pacing and absence of infected. The action only really picks halfway through the about half hour episode, and the first 15 minutes are very exposition heavy. And the only infected that appear are the ones in the credits and flashbacks, and I dearly missed seeing more of Renuka Singh’s fantastic make-up effects work.
There are things to enjoy in the latest episode of Infection but overall it is the weakest of the three so far. But I remain invested in this post-apocalyptic world and here’s hoping we see the return of its delightfully disgusting zombie denizens in Episode 4.
Julien’s Score: 4 out of 10
You can watch Infection Episode 3 for yourself by clicking here. For my review of Infection Episode 2: Scavengers you can click here. And for all my Trinidad and Tobago series and film reviews you can click here.
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 (Cariwood), 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.