Infection

By now I have seen so many incarnations of ... zombie movies, there probably isn't anything new I will discover anytime soon. No pun intended and that being said, the movie at hand here also works as a drama. It feels ... real if you suspend your disbelief and take zombies as something that actually exists.

In this case it is about finding a cure - whether that is possible or not ... that is a different story ... or maybe it isn't. Of course this binary, so either it exists or it doesn't ... but it is well enough told, if you let the movie do its magic on you. I was expecting more of a Covid related story myself, but maybe it is better the way it handled things in the end.

The ending felt rushed and ambiguos. The post credit scene is the best part of the whole movie, juxtaposing the infection with the plight of Venezuelan migrants.

Forget the social commentary and Venezuelan unrest this is a very watchable zombie film. There are suspenseful scenes galore and the lead actors are likeable and believable. The trip is worth it if you like solid film-making. It has pacing flaws but I cared about all the characters and their journey to find a safe place.

If you've seen a lot of zombie movies in your lifetime, this movie ultimately doesn't offer anything spectacular or new ideas to the table. The characters weren't fleshed out enough to the point where everything just blended like a bland soup. The only thing keeping me from lowering the score any further is the way the pandemic was being introduced along with clear and realistic approach to solve the issue.

Overall, this movie ended up being a watered down 28 days later with no sense of originality or identity of its own to give it a lasting effect.

If you're a huge zombie fan, there are much better options out there, this is sadly not one of them.

This is not another zombie movie. Yes, it does relies heavily on classic zombie cliches, but it's much more than that. Zombies are a metaphor for "Chavistas", those who blindly supported, and still support, the so-called Bolivarian revolution, the great political swindle that broke a country and its people. The infection itself is a metaphor for the distorted form of socialism imposed by Hugo Chavez (a great manipulator and a vulgar thug) and continued -even more distorted- by Nicolas Maduro. With that in mind, you have to watch the film as what it is: a reflection of what happens every day within the frontiers of this once great country. The "infection" has spread to all areas of life, and the zombies are those who succumb to it instead of fighting it. The parallelism between both horrors is appalling, and it is well achieved. Images of thousands fleeing the country due to the humanitarian crisis, have been used to recreate a post-infection exodus, and although the resource could have been better developed, it shows the very dark side of this massive migration wave: the general rejection Venezuelan migrants have encountered throughout its neighboring nations...so much for solidarity and Latin American fraternity. There is some outstanding acting, and upon researching, I've discovered that some characters are played by well-respected actors of long trajectory and experience (Leonidas Urbina, Ananda Troconis, Rubén Guevara, Francis Rueda), and it shows in the energy and pace of the film. They make the film believable. Some settings were really interesting, as well. I mostly regret the ending, which was rushed, ambiguous, unresolved. You get the idea of what happens, but it could have been so much better developed, specially after the good dose of suspense and sheer horror that the film makes you feel at times. In all, a very decent movie, about a terrible desease that has brought what once was one of the most promising emerging countries to its knees, helped by the indifference and shameful silence of the world: the sick and distorted Bolivarian socialism - which has proved to be neither Bolivarian nor socialist-. I encourage you to watch it if you want to see more of just zombies and gore.