Waterborne

I've been to Australia about 4 times in the last few years, generally for about 2 weeks each time; one thing all these trips have in common is that at least once in each of those trips I read a story of someone being attacked by some sort of dangerous creature. I've also had the typically Australian experience of having kangaroos deciding that dashing across the road (or standing in the middle of it) at night is a great idea. As a result this film did rather resonate with me since I do get the impression that most of the wildlife in Oz is out to kill you. The plot here is that something has affected the kangaroo population so that they are not just looking to hurt your car insurance no claims bonus, but actually kill you and rip you to pieces.

Essentially Waterborne is that old short film "go to" of a zombie movie – it is a very crowded genre which I generally do tend to avoid because (a) I'm not great with zombie horrors, and (b) many of them are not particularly well done. In this case the scenario is very tightly focused to basically patient zero being attacked by kangaroos which appear to have been infected in some way. It is a simple 3-scene deal, but it sets it up with a convincing outback world, and then has a pretty tense but fun sequence in the middle, and a satisfying end. It is not genre breaking, but it is at least pleasingly different in enough ways that it does stand out somewhat. Technically it is well made, with a good sense of atmosphere, and pretty good kangaroo prosthetics.

It may well be yet another zombie short film, but it is entertaining, different, and quite satisfying in its brevity.

Waterborne was disappointing, and not because it was overall a bad film. It was disappointing because of how much better it could've been, and how much promise it showed but ignored. First of all, zombies are overdone in every respect nowadays, even animal zombies; let's face it, it's straight up boring. Waterborne really just brings nothing new to the table and should've been thought over a few more times before reaching it's final cut. But I will admit the acting and camera work is very well done; but as I mentioned previously, it simply makes the rest of the movie look worse.

I think where Waterborne went the most wrong is the fact that it didn't even try to put it's own twist on zombies, it just straight-up has zombies; nothing special, they don't move fast, they're not afraid of the light, they can't talk, they can't strategize, they're not mutants instead, they're just boring zombies. Now I realize a lot of people love zombie movies and personally I appreciate them a lot too, but to have zombies just for the sake of having zombies is boring and pointless; the animals/people could've turned into mutants instead of zombies, just anything more creative would've given Waterborne a better mark than 5/10.

Generally, I am all zombied out. Countless (blank) of the Dead films, the Walking Dead television series, the Walking Dead prequel series and enough undead brain and flesh eaters in my Netflix queue to fill an entire year's worth of free time, zombies have become somewhat of a recurring redundant joke in daily life.

In an effort to bring something new and fresh to the genre, Hollywood has trotted out zombie films heavy on drama (Maggie), zombie films that are comedies (Life After Beth) and even zombie films that extend to other species of the animal kingdom (Zombeavers).

The latest experiment on expanding the zombie universe is Waterbourne, an Australian short from writer/director Ryan Coonan that involves zombies of the marsupial kind.

The premise is as simple as a less than 10-minute short can provide – a local ranger addressing an unidentified algae in the local waters is eventually confronted with a …wait for it….wait for it….zombie kangaroo. The cute and usually harmless creature of the Animalia Kingdom shows signs of intense aggression. Aggression that catapults the final minutes of the film into a memorable experience.

Running approximately 8:31 before the end credits roll, Waterbourne rises above the mediocrity of other independent film shorts due to its clear focus and direction. The picture is incredibly sharp and the tracking shots and scene framings are spot on perfect. The effects are relatively passable. Because no one would know what a zombie kangaroo would actually look like, who are we to judge on its authenticity? Waterbourne has played the festival circuit and word-of-mouth has generated enough buzz and crowdfunding support that the short will act as a prequel to a full featured film presently in development.

So the proverbial 'hats off' to Coonan and his team. I didn't think kangazombies would have caught my attention. Now I will never look at those hopping manic animals in my local zoo the same ever again.

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