Uncontained

I am reluctant to call this "horror", and I don't think the movie ever really tried to be. Instead what we get is a rather approach to the "zombie" concept that is far more a drama about humans, family and finding yourself.

Acting is good. Sound is mixed so I didn't have to turn it way up to hear conversations and then go deaf when anything else made noise (a rarity these days. Bless you, sound mixer!).

Over all I think it was a strong production, with thoughtful writing and good acting. Would recommend.

No sex or nudity. Some passionate kissing.

Mild gore If there was swearing, then I missed it.

Living in the wilderness, a man trying to protect his children from a horde of creatures roaming the area that have been reduced to a rabid, feral state is forced to stay at their house until their family arrives, which proves quite troublesome when various dangers threaten their chances.

This was a fairly enjoyable if somewhat flawed zombie effort. Among the better elements of this one is the immensely solid and overly fun setup that provides a rather intriguing take on the post-apocalyptic zombie survivor tale. Dropped into this one with the idea of the deadly outbreak having already struck society and forced mankind into pockets of survivors living in the snowy wilderness where they learn to fend for themselves all creates a strong starting point for this kind of genre effort. The focus on this one detailing the day-to-day life of the surviving kids as the guy arrives and tries to survive that includes him dealing with the intricate moments around the house taking care of the kids, keeping the property safe, and ensuring the creatures are unable to get to them which is a wholly unique touch to add to a zombie apocalypse. On top of that, there's a wholly intriguing touch here with the family dynamics being introduced with the arrival of the parent into the nix so that the interplay between the kids and the hunter gets another adult to work off of so everything makes for a generally fun time. That said, this one does have a couple of big issues with it. The main element with this one is the immensely underwhelming and general lack of action in this one. Even though there are some brief spurts where it does manage to inject some life into the proceedings with his defensive work against the zombies or the final encounter protecting them from the militia outbreak, there are not enough of these elements or even enough good ones to justify this one. It goes on far too long trying to detail him going around trying to deal with the kids and their work within the house before going back to deal with the zombies, and it's possible to forget they're out there so infrequently does it feature them. That doesn't help that there's almost nothing here about what's going on, from the reason for the plague, how the kids have survived, what the locals are doing about the creatures, even what the purpose of the militia proves, or even how the ending makes sense so it causes some big issues overall.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, and children-in-jeopardy.

I love zombie movies but they're often predictable and follow the same old tropes. Uncontained breaks the mold and gives us new concepts and dangers to consider. I really loved this fresh take on a rotting genre!

The mystery of the Man is slowly unfolding when we get more questions about the children he meets and where are their parents?

Uncontained opens up slowly, layer by layer, and by the time you think you know where it's going, you're neck deep in uncharted waters.

I love indie horror movies with a single location and small cast because it's all about the story and characters, not a bunch of extras dying and huge explosions.

Uncontained has interesting characters and new ideas about the "zombie" concept. I highly recommend it.

2025's "Uncontained" was, I admit, far better than I had expected...but I wasn't expecting anything good at all, so I think that's why it surprised me. Unfortunately, it could have been so much better. There were only a few reviews at the time I saw it, and although for the most part we largely agreed, our ratings varied between not so great and 10.

This zombie-ish, thriller-ish not really horror film stars Morley Nelson, who also wrote and directed it. Now that right there is usually a really bad sign. He plays a mystery mountain man with an enviable physique and the most muscular jaw I've ever seen who wakes up in the snow looking confused. Martial law is in effect because of a mysterious virus causing people to turn into vicious, feral killing machines. No sooner than he awakes he's greeted by a toddler giggling and waving at him and then he's put down by a tranquilizer dart shot by the little girl's older brother. When he wakes up again, the man is held hostage by this 7yo boy with a toy rifle/dart gun and told he can have his gun back and leave only if he helps them with the house they're in-which is currently parent-less. This part is real muddy and took the entire movie to understand. Anyway, the kid's mother had set up a treadmill in order to juice up a battery charger for electricity and the boy is too little to do it. So the man, named Dan-Dan the Man-sticks around to help the kids out and protect them from the random feral people. As it turns out, Dan is special.

After a few days, the mother comes back. Where has she been? Well, I can't tell you without spoilers. In fact, I can't really reveal anything else at this point. But her disappearance also explains Dan's specialness as well as why he woke up in the snow in the beginning of the movie. They all briefly become a family unit...which is funny because as it turns out they ARE a family unit for real. Really saved on acting fees, huh Morley? Anyway, a creepy redneck-y hunter guy named Carson keeps harassing the mother and stalking Dan because-and this is one of a few fuzzy parts for me-his daughter is missing. And in spite of martial law, the sheriff's continued warnings and people being told to stay inside their homes because, ya know, zombies-Carson has an entire well armed POSSE who are absolutely certain that Dan is responsible. At this point of the movie, things finally pick up, but they also get nuttier.

The conclusion of the movie to me was rather unsatisfying and silly, and seemed a little too convenient. BUT, I will give Nelson credit for not going the likely and predictable route.

First, the positives: The acting, while not Oscar-worthy, was okay. The cinematography showing the gloominess/loneliness/isolation and beauty of the vastness of mountains, snow falling and whiteouts was very effective. I enjoyed the family dynamic as Dan and his the kids (and the dog) began trusting one another and becoming a unit, although I would have liked to have seen more scenes of that progression. The editing was effective and unobtrusive. The score was good in the quiet parts, but...

The bad: The score in the action and tension scenes wasn't appropriate at all. To use acoustic instruments and just strum harder on them to create drama just doesn't work. The audio was a continuous problem, where I literally had to hold the remote in my hand to constantly crank the volume up or down in order to try and hear the conversations. This went for indoor and outside shots. Seriously, watch your levels! It was not only frustrating for me, but it caused me to miss some things while concentrating on adjusting the volume. The script was quite weak and while the plot itself wasn't bad as it did put a slight change on the typical zombie/infection genre, the conversations were wooden and I didn't understand why characters spent so much time not explaining things to each other. Maybe Nelson was going for the Man of Few Words thing, but I kept talking back to my TV telling the characters to communicate with each other. I mean, eventually they got to it, but normal human communication doesn't work that way.

Overall, it's not a bad film. I didn't impatiently start looking at my phone or fast forward through it, it was shot well and like I said, having not expected anything worthwhile at all, it managed to keep me entertained for the most part, so I can't be too tough on it.

This was a film that I got the chance to see thanks to Alex from Simply Legendary Publicity. It was included on a press release of films that were coming to Screambox, which is a service that I am subscribed to. After confirming that this was in the horror genre and a 2025 film, I figured I would check this out.

Synopsis: a mysterious drifter struggles to protect an abandoned boy and his little sister from an infection that turns people into a feral-like state.

We start getting a lay of the land as to where this takes place. It is isolated and a wooded area. It is also snowy. This then shifts to the ground. We see something digging its way out. It is from here that a mysterious man appears. We learn later that his name is Dan (Morley Nelson). He is shirtless and covered in snow. Nearby are his things. He gets dressed and starts walking.

This then shifts over to a house that is also isolated. The boy and girl from the synopsis live here, Jack (Jack Nelson) and Brooke (Brooke Nelson). They are playing in the snow. Something of note here is that the boy is carrying around a large gun. We learn that it is a dart gun that he has loaded with tranquilizers. Both of them are also young.

Their play gets interrupted by Donny (Brett Zimmerman). He drives a truck with a plow. Something has happened in this world and he is checking on the children, asking where their parents are. They don't answer and Jack stands his ground. Donny comes back later with his wife, Melanie (Courtney Blythe Turk). The children's parents still aren't home so the adults are staying to watch over them.

Now I'm not going to spoil what has happened but there is a lockdown due to an infection. We see the first night people looking in the window at the children while they play. They come back the night that Donny and Melanie are there. Something takes her and then him. The children continue to go about their lives when Dan shows up. Jack is cold toward him as well, but Brooke takes a liking to Dan. He does help get their power back on. He also protects them from an infected person. The issue here is that these sick people might not be the only thing to worry about. Brett Carson (Peter O'Meara) is breaking the stay at home order to find her daughter.

That is where I'll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start here is by saying this is an infected individual film. You could call it a zombie film, which would be the bigger overarching genre, but it falls in line with something like 28 Days Later. There are these people who are infected and attack others. This does develop its own lore around it and that was something that I appreciated. I wouldn't say the most original, but with how oversaturated these movies got, it is difficult at this point.

Now that I've set that up, where I'll start is by saying I didn't realize that the star of the film is also our writer/director. I'm guessing that the two children are his real kids. It seems that the mother is also his wife. Casting them in all these roles was probably out of convenience, but I also don't think they were bad either. The two children aren't great, but they felt like kids to me. That's all I ask for. Jack has a harder go here since he has to be defiant to protect his younger sister. Nelson has a good look as our lead and I like the mysterious nature that he has. Nicole doesn't show up until later, but she is good with her performance. She's also quite attractive. I just wanted to give credit to this family for this aspect of the project.

It then makes sense to finish out with the rest of the acting. Now no one else has much screen time since it is just being in this house, watching Nelson trying to figure out what to do next and protecting these children. I did think that O'Meara was good in his role. He is built as a villain, but he just wants to find his daughter who is missing. There are interactions there with a local sheriff where he seems like he could be a troublemaker. That was a subtle way to build his character. Turk is attractive in her minor role. I like Zimmerman with her when they show up at the house. It makes them seem like they're going to do something bad. Other than that, we have a roaming group of hunters that are trying to survive. I thought they did well along with anyone who was playing an infected person.

Let's then shift back over to the story. We do have good elements here. This doesn't have the largest budget but they take advantage of doing a movie that is set during a lockdown. We learn through subtle lines that martial law is in place. They're trying to protect people by having them stay inside. The house that the children are living in is high-tech and there's an explanation as to why there. It has these large windows which make for good scenes at night. They do well with having it set well outside of town since that hides things. It makes it feel like the start of the apocalypse.

I think then I'll shift over to filmmaking since what I need to discuss next falls into that. This is an interesting blend of types of movies. It sets the stage with horror by isolating these children and we see there's something outside wanting to get in. It then becomes a drama as Dan tries to figure out what to do, getting to know the children in the process. There are elements of tragedy with different things that get revealed and happen. It then goes into action as Dan tries to save everyone. The cinematography does well to capture all this. I do like getting that isolated feel, that helps with the atmosphere. There are shots that are framed well where we see something, but our characters don't. The effects are limited. They looked to be mostly practical, which I'm always a fan of. I'd say that the sound design and music also fit what was needed here.

In conclusion, this is a solid independent take on the infected film. It does well with capturing that beginning of the apocalypse feel with being mostly inside a house in the woods. There is a limited cast, making it seem like there aren't a lot of people left. The acting was solid to give the characters personality. This is led by what I'm guessing is the Nelson family. I'd also credit O'Meara as well. This is made well enough. The cinematography, framing and effects lead the way there. This is one that I rather enjoyed, even if I do have slight issues here. None of them are glaring. I would recommend it to fans of this subgenre for sure.

My Rating: 7 out of 10.