Budget: $3000
Stars: Friends, Family, Justin Thompson
Got a bit of an exclusive one here folks
a great triumph coupled with shit luck,
luck that took the form of one such hurricane
that hit Texas not so long back.
A guy I have made good friends with through
the power of Friday the 13th multiplayer. A stand up guy and very funny, Strangely he's a stand up comedian!
So this friend of his was working on this zombie/mishmash/surreal piece of work, like most micro budget films are.
I was excited to hear about this of course being in my line of work it's my bread and butter. Unfortunately the hurricane hit and totally fucked up the production in many ways. It totally changed the landscape of a lot of places, destroyed things they were working with and threw timelines out of the window.
Any higher budget film might of scraped by with this but micro budget meant friends family and kind strangers helping any they could.
Many effects were left to rot, one such some pig items were lost due time constraints. Although principal shooting appears to have been completed.
Reshoots and effects touching up have not been an option, so being this film at a still hefty 100 minutes is as is.
Posted to YouTube now, the director etc is hoping to continue with further ideas and films he has on the books.
Speaking of director this fresh faced young fellow:
The film opens up with our protagonist doing a series of weird excercise routines. He's a portly fellow who we learn by Vlog form has lost and is continuing to lose weight, he's very odd also but heck who isn't these days.
The filming is very grainy and mostly naturally lit from what I can tell but very well done for the micro budget scene. Locations are obviously places chosen for privacy and seclusion needed for filming things of this nature.
I'm sure the gym scene early on here is taken at a time when the place was at it quietest, though I could be wrong these are just my educated guesses.
I'm not going to beat around the bush with this, due to the editing and lack of reshoots this is a difficult film to watch. I had to watch it 3 pieces myself.
The walking in this film is one of the worst parts, there's a lot of it and in silence too!
There's a part where there's a devil/demon in a hill and the ambient sound is a killer too.
So on to some good stuff, the effects are great for the budget, apparently set up just using some marshmallow and food colourings etc.
I always marvel at the creativeness of micro budget films for using alternative methods for things done these are the things that score extra points on these films in my books.
Sometimes I wish Hollywood would take a look and return to more practical effects for some things. Not all things just so more of the little things can be done effectively in a cost efficient way.
Justin Thompson's scenes are funny and no I'm not just saying this because I know him. The guys genuinely funny even in real life, so when he's putting an effort in its even better.
This guy deserves a Netflix special for himself, for sure. So is this a good film?
Sorry no due to all the faults and I know this is because of unforeseeable accidents and mother nature herself. A bit more editing, reshoots etc would help this exponentially. As the ideas here are good ones.
It's not your average zombie apocalypse story it's authentic and from a point of view I've personally never seen before. I liked that, A LOT.
So even for its flaws THN is awarding this film 2 out of 5 stars for efforts and ideas. It's something I'd like to see done right with a bigger budget almost certainly!
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