Occurring outside happens to be the end of the world and a small group of survivors hold up in an abandon government building form the fiery apocalypse. For the occupants, trouble also lurks inside the dark corridors of the building, where they face off against flesh-eating zombies and a far more deadlier creature that knocks them off in an instant flash, whenever darkness fills the room.
The ambitiously zero-budget straight-to-DVD horror flick is filled with ideas, but limitations and muddled ventures is what keeps them mostly at bay. What they had to work with is very little, but they make the most of it with carefully competent handling in the technical side of productions. The forlorn building location they chose to shoot at built up an tautly dreamy atmospheric air and purposely dim lighting only enhanced its doom 'n' gloom feel and hid the awaiting menace. A foreboding soundtrack was quite an jaded experience when those techno cues came alive and loud sound effects packed a punch. Being shot in digital, made sure of few moody frames (like an hectic monster POV movement) but more often is was kept reasonably humdrum. Co-directors Jason Horton and Shannon Hubbell do pretty much a workman-like job without doing anything overly laudable, but what let it down for me was the deflated story and grating performances. What was going on was quite a boring blur, and the twist half-way through was a real groaner. The dreary premise kinda reminded me of "Resident Evil", but a very poor man's version of it. Actually the zombies aren't the main draw card here, but a lesser foe and the plot wants to be a little bit more than just a zombie film. Instead what goes on seems rather pointless and unfocused, and the laconic script whines with uninteresting drivel and even less development. Hearing these moronically token characters go on and on, had me thinking "zzzzzzz". Phew! At least there was some peculiar stabs at black humour, which I didn't particularly find humorous, but it made for better listening. Very wretch and weak were the performances, that I just didn't care for their fates. The fitting CGI effects were well handled and made to good use for such a production, while the make-up was another story with very little of it and what was there was indeed scratchy. Some blood is splashed about, but never in an over-the-top manner and at times off-screen or in the dark. The thrills when they come are a mixture of cheap to creative, but waiting around for them is a killer.
Flawed, but an admirably threadbare effort by the film-makers, however it doesn't mean I got to like it. There are some promising things to take away and I like the ominous air to it, but as a whole I came from it rather unsatisfied.