Germ

A satellite carrying a space-born virus lands near a small town which turns those residents nearest to the impact into raving zombies. Soon the people of the town are caught up in a life and death struggle with no immediate help coming in the near future. Anyway, so much for the plot which is hardly original. Add in the fact that this was a low-budget film and one could probably understand why my expectations were somewhat jaded. However, I was mildly surprised as the directors (J.T. Boone and John Craddock) managed to make the most out of what they had and were able to produce a decent enough zombie picture. Most of this hinged upon the fact that the action was so dominant that the lack of costly special effects and the unknown actors were subordinate to it. That said, there isn't much here that will excite bloodthirsty gore hounds. Again, the action is the key to this movie. Now, would I have preferred a bit more gore? Yes. But I suppose I can't reasonably fault anybody for putting a priority on action instead of gore. Especially since the decision resulted in a satisfactory movie overall.

The military's attempt to shoot down an orbiting satellite unleashes a space-borne epidemic on a remote, small town.

You can change the name of your film from "Germ Z" to simply "Germ" in order to try and hide the fact this is a low, low, low budget zombie film with a no name cast and crew... but we will still figure it out. The fact Netflix recommended it to me while simultaneously saying I would give it less than two stars is a mystery... but they got me to watch it, so well played.

Saying I hated it would be unfair, because there are so many worse films out there (have you seen "Hell's Threshold" yet?). But I sincerely hope I never have to watch this again.

I agree with reserved, but positive opinions. This movie has potential for some of the settings and scene direction, as well as some actors' acting. For the budget expectations, this movie shows promise to those involved on many levels. Granted, some of the actors make you cringe, but that happens. As for the overall movie itself, it is an acceptable addition to the zombie genre. Some negative reviews suggest that those reviewers didn't even bother to watch past the first few minutes but merely passed judgement. If you're looking for up and coming, this would be the movie to see, rate, and find talent to recommend. If you're looking for Hollywood polish from every angle and related clichés that comfort you look elsewhere.

A satellite crashes near a small town in the middle of the woods. Something from space came with the satellite, and starts to turn the townfolks into cannibalistic freaks.

This is an indie with freaks running around attacking people. It could be a scary watch if it's done right. This one isn't right. It tries to have that kinetic feel, but the camera work doesn't accentuate the action. This is not '28 Days Later'. The camera is not aggressive enough. There is a lot of blood, a lot of killing, a lot of running, and not enough excitement.

In addition, the movie starts excruciatingly slow. It's 25 minutes before anything interesting happens. It's even longer before we get the first kill. That's way too long for a modern horror movie.

I'm not put off by the low budget. In fact, I think they got good value for their money. The acting is pretty good for a low budget horror. Even the little kids put in good performances. But the directions don't show any sparks or originality. There is nothing special here, and there are too many glaring problems.

A satellite crashes bringing with it a virus that turns people into people chomping cannibals. All of this takes place around a sleepy small American town protected by a very young deputy sheriff.

I thought it was a pretty good movie, or at least a nice fast moving one most of the time. There's plenty of action and the effects were pretty good and so was the acting.

The camera work is annoying in places though. For some reason it wobbles around wildly when two people are talking but is steady in the action scenes. In some scenes actors nearly vanish off the screen for lack of a tripod.

There's also all that military hardware just sat around as scenery. I would have thought a dozen or so soldiers would give a horde of zombies a run for its money, it's a shame we weren't shown that or more of the hazmat guys freaking out about the situation.

Well nobody likes a long review so I'll just say I liked it and if you like zombie movies and that kind of thing this is a pretty entertaining movie and definitely improves from its shaky opening.