Netflix And Chill: Redcon-1 (2018)

I have said it before, and will say it again. There's nothing like a good zombie movie. And, unfortunately, Redcon-1 is nothing like a good zombie movie. I'm not sure if that's really so bad, we see at least a dozen bad zombie movies churned out every year, but it feels a bit worse than some others because, well, it seems to think that it is a good movie. It wants to be a smart horror that recalls the likes of 28 Days Later..., which is a bold move, but it falls down in a number of ways.

Here's a summary of the plot. Stop me if you have heard this before. There's been an outbreak of zombieitis. Soldiers, headed up by Captain Marcus Stanton (Oris Erhuero), are sent to find a scientist who may have a cure. The zombies are smarter than some other zombies we have seen over the years, but not smart enough to completely usurp the human race. You also get roving gangs of people who enjoy fighting and killing, and generally causing a bit of a ruckus, and there's a young girl who may have a better immune system than most, when it comes to this particular medical problem anyway.

Director Chee Keong Cheung has other films to his credit, but the last thing he directed was a decade ago, and that perhaps explains why he forgets a lot of the basics here. Because there's very little here that is executed with energy and style. You get some gore occasionally, and some of it is decent enough, but gore loses any impact when there's nothing else to grab your attention (despite what the more hardcore gorehounds may tell you).

The script, co-written by Cheung, Steve Horvath, and actor Mark Strange, is a mess. Characters are rapidly introduced to put them in a queue of people who will help check off the list of "50 zombie movie clichés", there's no tension, even in sequences that have the zombie menace overpowering a number of humans in their midst, and the dialogue makes the whole thing feel like a spoof.

Poor Erhuero, he tries his best but just can't do enough to lift up everyone, and everything else, around him. He's the best thing here, by some margin, but the film tries hard to make him look bad. At least he is someone you remember once the end credits have rolled, unlike the aforementioned Strange, Goodale, or even Katarina Leigh Waters. Or the little girl who plays . . . the little girl (I didn't jot her name down and I'll be damned if I am about to rewatch this crap just to get one name right).

Strange choices abound, from the editing to the soundtrack, the jarring jumps in tone, and the immediate changes in characters who are required to become brave/heroic/troubled as soon as some zombie dentures get too close to them. Even the pacing is off, with this thing clocking in at just under two hours, and the whole thing drags, despite there being an action scene thrown in every 10-15 minutes.

There are worse zombie movies out there. There always will be. But that doesn't make this one any better. It tries to have a little bit of polish but, as the old saying goes, you can't polish a turd.

3/10

There's a disc here if you want to waste some money.
Americans can buy the same disc here.