Zygote

Director Neill Blomkamp's experimental venture Oats Studios has produced shorts from a wide range of genres, including comedy, fantasy, and war, but primarily sci-fi, which often crosses over into the former three. "Zygote" is the first horror outing from the Oats team, and it is a strong case for a full-length horror feature from Blomkamp.

Zygote has definitely been my favorite narrative Oats short so far. With the previous shorts "Rakka" and "Firebase", a lot of the story was told through expository narration and flashbacks, which still worked because of how it built the world, but made them seem less like a traditional short. With Zygote however, the story felt much more natural, with much of the backstory and worldbuilding coming through dialogue and mise en scene.

In Zygote, Jose Pablo Cantillo and Dakota Fanning play the two remaining survivors of a mineral mining facility somewhere in the north. Genetic experimentation by one of the occupants has created an abomination made from parts of other living things. Cantillo and Fanning must make a last stand against the monstrosity to ensure the crew's sacrifice was not in vain.

The terror of this short is palpable, and showcases Neill's range as a director. Scenes of the wailing, undulating Zygote stalking down dark corridors are sure to stick with you. Jose Pablo Cantillo and Dakota Fanning were brilliant in their roles, clearly conveying the fear of being trapped inside with the monster, as well as the simultaneous courage to stand off with it.

If I had any criticisms, I would say that some of Jose's dialogue sounded a little fast or whispered, making it hard to hear, but it didn't detract from his overall performance. As for the Zygote itself, while the creature was terrifying, (maybe giving the Thing a run for its money!) I think it could have benefited from a wider range of vocal sounds, and was more scary when obscured by dark lighting, thus giving it a sense of mystery.

All in all, wonderful work from the Oats team! I'll be looking forward to Volume 2!

It is obvious just from watching Neill Blomkamp's short video stories that he is a much more visionary and skillful director than Ridley Scott now (Scott was as visionary back in the 1980s but time has moved on and Ridley has not adjusted well). This short film in particular is a wonderful work of art, sci-f and thrilling action. There is basically only one downside - it's too short. Judging solely from the art he did for his supposed Alien 5 project, it would have been or could be the best Alien sequel since Aliens. I hope some big shot in the production companies will give Neill a few hundred million to make the best Alien sequel and use all of his imagination displayed in this and several other short films to do a sci fi masterpiece, in the vein of this mind-blowing work of art.

Zygote is a short scifi horror film with outstanding production values and led by Dakota Fanning.

The first thing you notice is how good it all looks and sounds, this is a film with money and talent behind it and it shows.

Telling the story of two survivors of some horrific event in a base while being stalked by a gigantic creature seemingly made up of the body parts of its victims.

Though it does only stand at around 20 minutes and therefore isn't an entire story it does entertain regardless.

I would love to see a full length version of this, a sequel perhaps?!

The Good:

Monster looks incredible

Dakota Fanning is actually on decent form

Fantastic production values

The Bad:

Messy plot

ZYGOTE is another Neill Blomkamp short film. This time, we join survivors Barklay and Quinn (Dakota Fanning and Jose Pablo Cantillo), after something has gone horribly wrong in a subterranean facility.

It seems that a creature is after them. A monster so hideous and so mind-bending that my jaw dropped and stayed there! This is Blomkamp's unspeakable tribute to movies like John Carpenter's THE THING, James Cameron's ALIENS, etc., and does it ever deliver the flesh-crawling goods! Impeccable CGI makes this one unforgettable...

If you choose between seeing this and Life (2017)... choose this instead.

Let me explain why.

George Miller, master storyteller and director of the Mad Max films, has said that audiences have learned how to "speed read" films, citing the number of cuts between the earlier Mad Max movies and the latest, Fury Road: Wikipedia claims that Fury Road contains 2,700 cuts while The Road Warrior had only 1,200.

I bring this up because Zygote offers us the very same setup as films like Alien, Aliens, John Carpenter's The Thing, Event Horizon, and even Life, of this year: Zygote is set in a derelict and remote station featuring workers being stalked by a horrible creature. Zygote is superior to Life only because it is much more condensed. I'm judging Zygote by Life because they came out the same year and Life has failed to evolve.

No, I'm not giving preference to Zygote over Life just because Zygote is shorter-- Zygote is condensed. As the Mad Max movies have evolved to suit the abilities of "speed reading" audiences, Zygote offers us everything Alien, Life, and The Thing offers without dragging out the entire show.

The "trapped in space with a horrible monster" genre has been done to death. Zygote wisely gives us all of the feelings of isolation, fear, claustrophobia, and wonder that the genre offers us in just over 20 minutes. "Life" was overlong rehash of a film we've seen more than a dozen times now. Perhaps Zygote-- or rather, its format-- is the evolution of the genre.

A criticism: the opening exposition is weak, just the male lead talking and explaining the setup. And he speaks in such a gravelly-growly "please take me seriously, I'm a hardened veteran, no really" kind of way I wished there was an option for subtitles.

In any case, props to the FX department of Zygote-- they did a wonder creating their monster. Now THERE is a scary creature I'd rate in the same category of creepy-cool as Alien's xenomorph. Not Life's "Calvin..." that thing looked like a lizard with a four feelers.