This high-energy, inventive, and fast-paced take on the zombie genre has so much innovation on display that you’ll have such a good time any issues with the film will be left in the dust. 

Released in 2014, this micro-budget Australian film follows a group of survivors as they contend with a zombie outbreak in the outback. 

Barry, played by Jay Gallagher, is a mechanic with a loving wife and an adorable daughter. They are happy and contented. One night, their daughter alerts her parents that there is someone in the kitchen. Turns out, it’s a zombie. Barry dispatches of this fast and brutal zombie attack with difficulty. He realizes that there’s something in the air that is creating these undead. They wear gas-masks and pile into the car to escape. 

Barry receives a call from Brooke, played by Bianca Bradley, she’s a photographer who in the middle of a photoshoot is attacked by her model who has transformed into a zombie. It’s a great scene. The move uses space in a really interesting way. They are in a barn type structure and Brooke manages to hook the model and hoist her up in the air using the rafters and long rope. Instead of running away the tension becomes navigating an enclosed space with a zombie swinging around the room. A horizontal chase becomes a vertical scene of tension and action. 

This is a perfect demonstration of the ways in which the film is willing to be innovative within a tiny budget. Made with about $160,000 the movie looks like a million bucks. They use close ups to great affect showcasing their actors and diverting our attention away from small sets or cheap looking props or less than perfect makeup effects. The film uses lighting in a really innovative way. When out in nature they use sharp artificial fill lights to illuminate the characters faces which heightens the atmosphere and creates an uneasy and unnatural feeling in every scene. The movie plays to its strengths and comes up with creative solutions to budget shortfalls. 

Brooke is now stranded in her studio and awaits Barry’s help. Meanwhile, Barry runs into trouble of his own and ends up connecting a trio of fellow survivors. The very Australian sense of humor and Aussie attitude is on full display here. I can only speak for myself, but most Americans I know find Australians very charming and fun. I think a lot of Americans will have a lot of fun with this send of humor.

As these guys are trying to figure out what to do next, Brooke is taken by military forces. They chain her up in a lab with a mad scientist and a few zombies. They begin injecting her with zombie blood. Something I love is how the film never gets bogged down in details. How did the zombie outbreak start? We don’t know. We get hints, but what’s important is the danger they present. Is the military behind this in some way? It seems like it. We get a few key hints that they might be, but we don’t know. It keeps the plot interesting and exciting and keeps the movie moving without bogging us down in the details. 

We’re heading into spoiler territory here. I didn’t know anything before I put this movie on, and that’s how I’d recommend you watch it. The movie is so full of clever surprises that I’d hate for it to be ruined. If you’re interested, go watch the movie and come back because we’re getting into it here.

Barry and the boys are trapped in a garage surrounded by zombies. There is even one in their midst, but not to worry, he’s in the freezer. He’s basically hibernating. It’s all good. 

They realize that the zombies respirate a gasoline like substance. Their breath is highly flammable and could be used as fuel in a refitted car engine, so the boys refit a car engine equip the thing with protection and blast through the garage with anti-zombie tank of sorts. They plow through them in search of Brooke. Is this a little silly? Yes, but it’s also a lot of fun. It’s also a nice twist on the old zombie tropes. 

Meanwhile, Brooke is getting injected with zombie blood by this psychotic scientist. He’s credited simply as The Doctor, and he’s played by Berynn Schwerdt. He seems to be having too much fun with this movie. As Brooke takes on more zombie blood she begins developing a connection with the zombies chained up in the lab. She discovers that she has a psychic control over them. It’s unclear what the purpose of these tests is. We never take the time to explain them, and I’m okay with that. I don’t need the doctor’s back story or who commissioned this lab or why. What matters is what immediately happening in front of us in that moment. I love that. I love the immediacy of the movie. 

Barry and the boys soon discover that the zombies stop producing their gaseous breath at night. This is because they are using it to fuel their bodies. They go full on berserker mode at night. Because they have no more gas, the boys tank is stranded in the middle of nowhere surrounded by zombies. 

A bad but seemingly innocuous decision by Barry soon leads to disaster. He shoots a zombie out the tank window and due to their bodies expressing so much gas the zombie catches fire and sets fire to the tank. One minor choice leads to a catastrophe for everyone. A destroyed hand, zombie bite, and a dead friend later and the boys survive the night. They continue their pursuit of Brooke. 

I loved this moment. Too often character choices don’t make a difference in a movie or their choices lead to tragedies and then are glossed over. Barry’s bad choice weighs on him and we get to see that effect on full display. I really enjoyed this attention to plot and motivation. 

Meanwhile, Brooke masters her zombie psychic powers and frees herself from the lab which was done in such a delightfully surprising way. I loved it. She uses one of the zombies to infect the doctor and then when the doctor is about to kill her she mind controls him because he is now infected with zombie blood. So cool. 

Barry and the boys, well boy at this point, arrive just in time to discover that the lab has been in the back of a military semi truck. Brooke escapes the lab and gets on board with Barry. The military don’t take too kindly to this and things come to a bloody conclusion in the woods. 

I love how the film perpetually subverts expectation. We think Barry is going to be the big hero with his plan, then we think Brooke is going to save the day, then one of the boys has a plan, but that doesn’t play out as expected either. As with the rest of the movie, the film is constantly surprising and subverting expectations. 

I won’t give away the ending, but I will say that it was completely satisfying. I enjoyed this ride from start to finish and had a great time watching the zombie genre get flipped on its head. It’s full of blood and guts, so don’t watch if you’re sensitive to that. 

But I really enjoyed it and definitely recommend it. 

It is my cup of tea A