Plan Z

I wanted to like this film, but I got bored after about 20 minutes. The acting is decent enough; in all honesty it's well above independent standards, but the writing is cliched. You can see it coming a mile off. This is what lets this production down. Having said that; I believe that future endeavors will be much better.

A bit bored this afternoon and this drew my attention on Prime. It is low budget and there are probably more continuity errors than I care to remember. However the characters are all believable with no-one thinking they are Rambo. They also handle the various situations in a believable way.

If you can have a believable zombie movie, this is probably close to it. Gritty, lots of blood and different to just about every Hollywood zombie movie.

I have to say that I watched this film with reserved expectations, for me independent films carry with them a certain stigmata. Unlike a blockbuster that can cover poor elements with budget or cast, independent films feel a lot more exposed to criticism.

The good news is, because I had managed my own expectations what I got was a very enjoyable story-led, zombie thriller. I was engaged with the characters and story because throughout the film I felt genuine tension. The score and cinematography were superb. I often caught myself admiring the quality of the shots, the consideration of the angle and the accompanying score. There was one particular shot of the Isle of Skye that was stunning.

One previous film likened this to a 'Poor man's 28 days later', well I actually consider this to be praise. I love the atmosphere and style of that film and for Plan Z to compared I think is a great feat considering the difference in cast and budget.

If I had to be overly critical, there was one plot point that left me confused to what actually had happened (I don't want to give away spoilers but it's a major point of the film) and there was one piece of music towards the end of the filmed that didn't like it mixed very well and was out of place.

When watching, please don't expect a Hollywood blockbuster or compare it to the big Zombie films as it won't compare. Have a bit of perspective to how it was achieved and I think you will be very pleasantly surprised.

I'd checked out quite a few reviews of this from fellow Letterboxd-ers and, while managing to avoid any serious spoilers, it was already very clear what the consensus of opinion was on this film.

Now I'm not the sort of awkward pedant who'd pretend to hate it because it was popular and easy, to make me look all dangerous and interesting ... but I would argue my reasons for liking unpopular films (such as R.I.P.D, Daredevil (with Ben Affleck!) even Batman and Robin which my brother loathes and I always stick up for, just to piss him off - if explained clearly enough and with reasonable examples for the basis of your opinion, then who am I to tell you, you're wrong?!

In spite of all the above, I actually found this hilarious.

Found myself take an immediate dislike to the way He carries himself in front of the camera, speaks in a Michael Madson-esque lazy drawl and just instantly rubbed me up the wrong way.

That in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, I appreciate a good villain. However in this, he's the 'hero'? Nah... really?

What would he do if the zombocalypse occurred when he was off on one of his international photography jaunts? Hadn't planned for that had you smartypants?

He comes across like some kind of Badly Drawn Boy/Chuck Norris hybrid, even when he's just heard the grisly sounds of people being torn to bits and eaten right outside his front door. I contemplated how it would have affected the film if the main man was Ewan Bremner, playing it like Spud. Instead of barely raising a designer-scruffy eyebrow when coming to terms with Zombocalypse, he'd be running around, crying, swearing and shooting up smack.

This would have made it a brilliant film.

Ps - If nothing else, I am grateful to this film for introducing to me to John Fairhurst whose bruising groove 'No Shelter' (wow! It's like they gave it some thought) blew me away. I'm off to Emusic now to see if they've got his stuff included in my subscription.

This movie was clearly made on zero budget, as akin to the previous similar zombie effort of Colin, as such you have to consider this and appreciate how much of a movie this actually turned out to be.

There is tension and compelling action, and the whole thing doesn't feel like filer, despite most of it taking place in a couple of small locations. The narration can get annoying but you can see that it is what stitches the filmed scenes together and is necessary. The effects mainly rely on editing and imagination, but again with no budget this makes sense. Generally the editing and directing are what make this any good. The only flaw is the writing, it is quite simplistic and the point of 'survival vs fighting back' is repeated over and over again despite the filmmakers message becoming clear about a third of the way into the movie.

Overall this isn't a bad effort considering the clear lack of budget, there have been a lot worse zombie movies made with a lot more to work with, so definitely worth a watch if you are looking to make something for nothing yourself.