Colin (2008)

Director: Marc Price
Starring: Alastair Kirton, Daisy Aitkens, Kate Alderman, Leanne Pammen, Tat Whalley

SYNOPSIS

Colin is a freshly turned zombie, who stumbles around his neighbourhood during a zombie outbreak.

REVIEW

There's 2 things that really made this otherwise pretty minor movie stand out when it was released on DVD last year. First of all, it's an unusually staged movie, taking from from the point of view of a zombie during a zombie uprising. Second, it was apparently produced for a budget of £45 (about US$65)!

Now, there's problem inherent with both of these facts, and it doesn't take long for either of them to become visible. To start with, following a zombie around isn't actually all that interesting. After all, especially as we're talking about the grunting, shuffling, George Romero-style zombie, we don't get a lot of dialogue. So, we see Colin shuffling from one place to another watching or participating in some attacking of human beings. Price does try to pad the movie out a little bit with flashbacks to Colin's living self and a few other detours, but the movie does drag a little (at 97 minutes, it's also at least 20 minutes too long).

Compounding this problem is that £45 doesn't buy you much. The film seems to have been done on an experimental basis, using free software, previously existing digital media and unprofessional or volunteer actors. The price of this is of course the quality of the finished film. It doesn't look good, and while the actor portraying Colin himself isn't too bad, the supporting cast isn't very good.

Overall, like El Mariachi, Pi, Primer, Clerks and all the other "made for nothing" movies that get a lot of press, this is an inspiring movie that makes you want to get up and make a movie instead of just watching or writing about them! Unlike those movies, however, it's no classic and while it should be applauded for trying something different with the overpopulated zombie genre, it's pretty mediocre and wouldn't have gotten much attention had its reported budget not been so ridiculously low.