Colin

Made for £45, my arse! This film's laundry bill alone would have amounted to more than that (fake blood doesn't come out of clothes by itself, you know), let alone all the other costs that are unavoidably incurred during the film-making process, no matter how cheap the production: catering, administration, travel, make-up supplies etc.

Sadly, Colin's clever '£45' marketing ploy turns out to be the most effective thing about the whole film. Despite a valiant attempt to try something different with the whole living-dead schtick, and for seriously less dosh than most low-budget horrors, most of the time the film proves to be a less than scintillating experience, the basic idea being far more suitable to a 10 minute short than a 97 minute feature.

Watching recently turned corpse Colin (Alastair Kirton) slowly dragging his feet around South London for an hour and a half, pausing to contemplate road signs or traffic lights on the way, is pretty dreary stuff. Director Marc Price occasionally picks up the pace, such as when Colin stumbles upon a house siege or a group of survivors take action against the undead (resulting in a unsettling scene where those wounded during the battle are cruelly dispatched before they can become zombies), but for the majority of the time, this is dead boring.

Colin (Alastair Kirton) arrives at his friend's home holding a hammer and covered in blood. He washes a savage wound in his arm before being attacked by his friend, now one of the undead. Colin kills the zombie before slowly turning into one himself. Once turned, Colin embarks on a journey of discovery amongst an apparent zombie apocalypse. He finds a taste for human flesh but rarely attacks. He is mugged for his trainers before being rescued by his sister, who he then mindlessly bites. We then follow Colin across a chaotic city, where the humans seem to be more savage than the zombies.

The story of Colin is really quite remarkable. Apparently made for £45, director Marc Price shot the film on a ten-year old camcorder and used social network sites to gather willing actors. When screened at various horror festivals, the film attracted the attention of various production companies and Colin went onto having a limited cinema release. When Danny Boyle released 28 Days Later (2002) and re-invented zombies as fast, scary and fuelled by rage (rather than a taste for flesh), the zombie genre was given a new lease of life. Even zombie legend George A. Romero got back in the game and made the okay Land of the Dead (2005). They are still as popular now as they were back then, and the straight- to-video market especially is plagued by them. It has become slightly tiresome and formulaic. The success of Colin stems from the fact that it does something wholly original and tells the story from the zombie's point of view.

Colin admittedly looks terrible - but when you shoot a film for the same price as a video game then that can certainly be forgiven. This is by no means a great film, but it's certainly interesting, and has some inspired moments. In the early scenes, Colin wanders the streets and finds some building blocks which he eyes with recognition and confusion, and later finds an iPod which he listens to for a while before discarding. It adds new dimensions to the zombie which makes a nice change from seeing them being blasted away (although that is also fun). The camera-work can certainly be irritating, as sometimes it's hard to work out what is actually happening, but again, this can be forgiven. I'll be interested to see what Price goes on to do after this, as he's made the most likable and sympathetic zombie since Day of the Dead's (1985) Bub.

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This is one of those rare films which I believe every serious zombie enthusiast needs to see. Now, that is not to say that every zombie fan will necessarily like it. But what it offers is a unique look at life (for want of a better word) from the zombie's point-of-view. On that note, I found it to be original, artistic and very well thought out. For those reasons I certainly understand some of the positive comments from other reviewers. That said however, I also understand some of the negative comments too. Obviously being a low-budget production it suffers accordingly. None of the actors or actresses were known to me and other than Daisy Aitkens (as Colin's sister, "Linda") none of them had any dialogue worth mentioning anyway. Even so, I thought the lead actor, Alastair Kirton ("Colin") performed in an excellent manner all the same. Unfortunately, the camera work was quite often shaky, in some cases the lighting was bad and other than Colin there really wasn't much character development. Additionally, some of the scenes were extremely slow and dragged on way too long while others could have been cut with little (if any) noticeable effect on the final product. Along with that, some of the special effects (i.e. gore) should have either been improved upon or eliminated all together. In short, this was a zombie film that definitely needed to be made. And while I seriously doubt the production costs listed in IMDb (of $70) are true, I will say that if it had even one-tenth of the money allocated to "World War Z" it could have been one of the best zombie films ever made. Sadly, this was not the case and while I believe the director (Marc Price) has every reason to be proud of his efforts, I still have to factor in some of the negative variables I mentioned earlier in my overall rating. Having said that, although I believe this film has a definite place in the zombie legacy, I rate it as slightly below average.

Colin is bitten by a Zombie; he dies, returning from dead and tackles what every zombie has to deal with, the living.

A poor mans micro-budget zombie film that is less effective than the low budgeters Autumn (2009) and Zombie Diaries (2006). Allegedly shot for £40 (even though petrol would cost more than that in UK to get to each location filmed).

Some of the make up is well executed. Alastair Kirton gives a good zombie performance as Colin and the supporting cast are fine. Nevertheless, the filming suffers from problems of most low budget movies. That said, director/writer Marc Price does his best with what he has and credit to him for the film reaching such a wide audience.

Overall, interesting film making which tries to stir emotions for 97 minutes.

"Colin" is an amazing achievement, given its shoestring budget. Marc Price's ambitious independent and original zombie film shows us proceedings through the undead's perspective (the role of Colin played by Alastair Kirton).

This is a genuinely moving film which contains a number of unforgettable scenes. Taking the genre beyond mere blood and guts (but there are plenty of juicy entrails and examples of body dismemberment on display to keep the gorehound's interest fixed on the proceedings), "Colin" is a thought provoking, rather tragic, movie.

7 out of 10. Recommended viewing. Price shows genuine talent and it will be interesting to see where he takes the viewer next.