Colin

Director: Marc Price

Starring: Alastair Kirton, Daisy Aitkens,

Synopsis:

Colin is bitten by a Zombie; he dies and returns from the dead. We follow him as he wanders through suburbia during the throes of a cadaverous apocalypse...

Review:

When student filmmakers get together and decide what movie they’re going to start out with, a zombie film tends to be the cheapest and seemingly easiest to make. Sadly, this often leads to a tedious 80 minutes of the filmmakers and their friends stumbling around to a paper thin plot and paper-mache make up effects. You only have to look at the latest DVD releases currently, to find one such example. All the “actors” are the same age!

When a movie like Colin comes along, it’s a breath of fresh fetid air. I wasn’t sure of it at first. I couldn’t make Fright Fest this year, so missed the film’s screening. It was word of mouth and the director’s Twitter activity that made sure that I picked up a copy from my local DVD store. Being a veteran viewer of low budget zombie films, I’m always wary. I needn’t have been with Colin.

Whilst the movie will never appeal to a mainstream audience like Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland, Colin has so much to offer horror enthusiasts, in particular zombie film fans like myself. Marc Price has crafted a movie that is brutal, sensitive and exciting for not a lot of cash.

The movie begins with Colin having suffered a bite on his arm. Through the initial scene Colin appears to have been a kindly, placid guy before his untimely death and resurrection. Kirton plays Colin a little like Howard Sherman’s Bub, in Day of the Dead. He stumbles through the apocalyptic suburbia more interested in connecting with pieces from his past life than constantly feeding like most of his fellow zombies. This does not mean that the film is bloodless; far from it. There is plenty to appeal to those who want to see some zombie carnage. Colin stumbles across a number of incidents that chill to the bone and not just because of the bloodletting going on. Colin is up there with the best of the genre because it makes the audience feel in more ways than just being grossed out. Three main set pieces come to mind; a house siege that is going out of control for the living occupants, a daylight battle in the street between careless living folk and the dead, and a nightmarish basement scene.

The house siege works for the most part because I can imagine the situation being like that in real life. Combatants battle the dead with all manner of implements ranging from a drill to an umbrella. Whilst the dead shamble around with a lot of difficulty, it’s the weight of numbers that overwhelm the living. In a typically brutal twist a survivor escapes only to find herself in a worse situation (yes, there are worse things than being consumed by a horde of hungry dead folk.)

Again, like the best of the genre, Colin shows the darker side of humanity in people’s behaviour. A group of the living take on the dead as almost a kind of sport, overseen by a self-appointed leader who manipulates others into battling the dead whilst he mainly just watches. Those that are bitten or suspected of being bitten are killed by mob rule. A chilling scene shows an argument over who will do the killing as no-one wants to do it.

In contrast, when Colin’s sister arrives on the scene, the movie changes slightly but only to focus on the tragic aspects of loss and coming to terms with it.

I’m not going to put emphasis on the technical aspects of this movie as the DVD sleeve clearly states that the movie was made for the price of an entrée at a higher end London restaurant. Anyone expecting slick Hollywood production will get a shock. For the most part I felt that the low quality helped the movie. Sure, there are obvious tricks employed to hide the lack of budget, but overall, the effect added to the atmosphere. In contrast I have seen nil budget movies that cost in the region of a few hundred thousand and are unwatchable because of poor scripting, poor make up, acting and use of locations etc.

Summary:

Whether it was intentional or not, Marc Price references well known movies from Night of the Living Dead to Terminator 2, but the film has an identity of its own. The make up reminded me of Savini’s work on Dawn of the Dead. The pathos and bleak atmosphere of the movie reminded me very much of how George Romero made his first three movies, content that is sadly lacking in his latest efforts. If you like to think when watching a movie, questions are asked about what makes us human in the first place. If you like plenty of gore the movie delivers that too, despite the lack of funds.I will be watching out for more from this director. Thunderchild is in production.

8 out of 10 (Wayfarer)

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