This film stars Steven Seagal as Tao (the leader of a group of 'hunters'), this is Seagals first horror movie role... And no offence to the guy but hopefully his last, I like to see emotions and fear in cast members of a horror movie, all Seagal and his hunters do is stroll around to 'awesome' theme music acting bad ass and killing the infected. Seriously if the hunters are having this easy a time of it I don't get how so many people have been killed...
However apart from being zombie-vampire-mutant-thing killing machines that's pretty much all that can be said about the hunters, they have almost zero characterisation making them serve only one purpose in this film; to completely remove any sense of desperation or atmosphere because Steven Seagal is apparently f@cking untouchable!
So basically the plot is this; in a post-apocalyptic-but-somehow-still-with-working-planes-and-missiles-and-a-seemingly-fully-functional-military-and-chain-of-command world there are a group of leather clad bad-asses strolling around killing infected that run across a hospital where a gang of significantly less bad-ass people find themselves somehow unable to go out the way they came in and being stalked by strange vampire monsters... Oh and the mutants can talk and use logic... When convenient to the plot.
The last thing I will say about the plot (other than the fact it's bat-shit-ridiculous at points) is the fact that the group can clearly be seen entering the hospital through a window.I did have a picture but apparently it's so dark all you can see is the female leads face... And that doesn't really back up my argument. But then upon meeting other survivors they are in fact revealed to be several floors above ground level (what did they all get pulled out of harms way by spiderman?) and the only 'safe' exit is on the ground floor. Oh and the power is about to run out and come dawn the military are going to bomb the shit out of the hospital because they can't allow quarantine to fail and risk infecting everyone else... Wait a god damn minute I thought everyone else was dead anyway?! Post-apocalyptic remember? Jesus Christ was there even a script for this film?
So... The infected, well I actually have a semi-decent picture of one of them that has an expression I feel perfectly sums up my reaction to this film:
Yeah. Moving on... Steven Seagal's character (I don't even remember any of the characters names unless I refer to my notes that's how engaging and relate able they are...) uses a sword, and I have to say the only time I've seen swordplay so choppy and unbelievable was in the film Zulu. Zulu is a classic and was made in 1964, what's your excuse Against the Dawn? Having said that it's only that bad in a few scenes where you see him fight them straight on camera related trickery make it so you don't see the blows land most of the time.
Let's find something positive to talk about quick! The mutants, they are... Oh fuck it they are the most inconsistent things ever. I'm pretty sure there's supposed to be a sub-plot in there somewhere about them evolving to become more intelligent and there's a message about 'humans being the outsiders now'. But that's crapped all over by the obviously more-than-just-getting-by humanity and the fact the infected can talk and reason but then inexplicably resort to growling snarling and running at clearly better armed opponents... Oh but then they lay clever ambushes for the people who run off on their own with no weapons... I refer you back to my infected friend above for my thoughts on this.
I can't provide any more examples of the mutant inconsistencies without ruining several key plot points (not that I wish to imply there is much of a plot), but trust me watch the movie and you'll get it.
All I can say for the special effects side of the film is that they have some decent props, and the one zombie with screws for teeth right near the end is fairly cool!
I can't help but feel that with some better writing this movie could of been a decent watch but something has gone wrong somewhere along the lines here... Seriously wrong.
Ah yeah this bears mentioning, at one point one of the characters states 'what if we're the last ones left, then we'd be the monsters'. That seems like it would be a pretty bloody good plot point to explore, sort of like I am Legend (the book) whereby the humans would be the monsters to the infected, especially Seagal and his gang who slaughter them wholesale, but no, mutants are bad and humans are good, it all stays very black and white.
Furthermore the characters are very willing to ditch each other, stupidly so! At points it's almost like they want each other to get eaten. I suppose it could be explained by the fact they've all been through a trauma and don't want to rely on anyone but themselves, but then why would they have been in a group in the first place. Reflecting this attitude and making it worse is everybody having complete acceptance of their companions probably deaths, if someone goes missing 'it's too late for them now' or 'they're gone we have to keep moving' it just seems slightly unconvincing for people who have stuck together thus far, especially the couple that are in the film, who abandon each other to dangerous psychotic mutants on a seemingly scene by scene basis.
My final point is that this feels very much like it should have been a video game, the whole descending floors to get to an objective and constantly splitting up from each other would make a good game, or at least a better game than film.
In conclusion:
Watch this film if you're bored have nothing to do and try not to think about it to much.
1.5 / 5 Brains... I feel that's more than a little generous.
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