GROUND ZERO

Darius Hendricks is a political activist who is on the cusp of revealing something huge to the American nation. It seems the US military have secretly been developing some form of virus to be used in biological warfare. When Darius and his accomplice finally obtain a sample of the virus, rather than squeal to the national press, he goes a step further by injecting himself with a view of being a living example of the military’s illegal experiments.

Inevitably, before the discovery can go national, he is assassinated by some Government secret service hit men. The mess requires a cleanup. Step up Jairus Ackerman and his femme partner, Greer. The duo have carved themselves a well-paying career in the covert clean-up business and have little hesitation taking on the current job offered to them by the mysterious Mr Johnson.

Sure it will delay a trip out of town to see his increasingly impatient lover, but for Jairus at least, the pay check is too good to turn down. It’s just another case of getting paid for washing away any traces of evidence while professionally disposing of some corpses. So what if one of them has been exposed to an unknown virus, he is dead... right?

I must confess, I perused the DVD artwork to the latest in a long line of no-budget Zombie flicks and despite the claims of it being ‘blood splattered’ and ‘creepy’ thought, "Here we go again. Another brainless zombie exercise in CGI with a few wafer thin characters thrown in for the hell of it". It may well be my pessimistically, ignorant approach to the movie that essentially served it well as, if truth be told, I actually enjoyed it.

For the most part, the characters were a good blend that bounced off each other. The aforementioned duo had enough subtle hints to their banter with each other to suggest they could possibly end up more than friends by the movies conclusion. Greer, in particular, seemed eager for her male partner to ditch his psychotically demanding long distance lover.

She herself had enough balance to her makeup to make her interesting. (On one hand loves shoes, on the other, a hard as nails seasoned professional in the corpse cleaning business!)

They are joined by a more quirky (and less believable) male duo, Jeff and Ted. Their exchanges were a little more blatant with the humour, which included some mildly amusing film impression quotes. I mention all this because it’s these four who feature liberally in the first 30 minutes or so before a zombie actually makes the transition from dead to undead! Not quite the segregation of ‘road movie’ and ‘horror flick’ in the vein of Duck Till Dawn, but the quad held it together quite well until the zombies materialized!

Well I mentioned my personal loathing regarding the over reliance of CGI gore earlier so how did it fare in that department? It’s fair to say GROUND ZERO is not an all-out Gore-a-thon but it did have enough red splashes to keep it interesting, although not in the traditional zombie splatter sense.

Basically, this is a movie about the START of a potential zombie epidemic. There are only four main characters, four cadavers they have to clean up and the entire movie is more or less set in a warehouse - it’s never going to be all out carnage. But I have often wondered why there is not more vomiting in zombie cinema, especially when they transform before actually dying (i.e. when bitten on the wrist etc). Well here is an area where GZ delivers!

The puke machines are drolly demonstrated in the 30 minute "Making of .." feature included in the Extras section of the DVD. While on the subject of the "making of.." I think it was watching this segment of how to make a film on a miniscule budget that developed my fondness of the picture.

Tom Jensen’s squibs, fake blood and latex were used for the majority of the effects with CGI employed instead of contact lenses for the reddened eye look of the zombies. I can live with that especially given the limited funds. I think I have been reasonably just with my positive comments thus far, but now have to redress the balance a little before you decide to check the movie out.

The opening scene for me was a major issue that you simply have to ignore if you are going to glean any entertainment from the narrative that follows. The break in to the top secret lab took implausibility to a new low! Darius looked like he was armed with a toothpick yet still penetrated the labs security with no problems. No security guard was present, no locked doors once inside and the sample itself was clearly marked and easily accessible in a plain domestic fridge! Nit picking at a zero budget movies short comings maybe, BUT this event did present itself as the crux for the rest of the movie to follow. If they had stuck to the intercut news reports and not bothered showing Darius at the lab I could have understood. But this was a glaring lapse realism that was a little insulting even to a fan of zombie motion pictures!

The feature is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen and had a polished look about it that elevated above some of the cheaper looking no budgeters doing the rounds. The audio didn’t resent any problems and there was a nice separation between the squelching sound effects and the ‘ordinary’ resonance.

With some comical outtakes and a trailer reel completing the extras, all in all it was a decent package for a quirky entry into the Zombie genre. Whether director Channing Lowe has done enough to entice a bigger budget for a possible sequel is debatable, but anyone with such an intricate knowledge of vomit machines surely deserves some favourable exposure under the crimson spotlight!

Review by Marc Lissenburg