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Cast: Jay Hayden, Andy Stahl, Tori White
After an explosion unleashes the contents of a military bio-weapons plant, the unsuspecting populace is transformed into a roaming army of flesh-eating zombies. Trapped in the quarantine zone, Jim (Jay Hayden, A Warrior's Heart) finds himself cut off, confused and fighting for his own survival. Contacted by a small band of others unaffected by the toxins, Jim sets out to reach their besieged warehouse. Becoming the group's de-facto leader, he struggles to keep order as they hunker down, fortify their stronghold and arm themselves against the attacking mutants. Fragmentary radio reports from outside hint at a last-ditch government rescue plan. But can the survivors hold out until help arrives… or will they succumb to the living hell of an undead apocalypse?
The zombie genre has been so played out that when I see a new one released I just can't get excited anymore. There's only so much you can do within the confides of a zombie film so this one didn't have me very excited but Writer/Director, Turner Clay has restored my faith once again. Clay takes full advantage of the film's meager budget, there are zombies but not an abundance of them like in other films, there are several computer generated kills and the film has some nice make-up work but it's strength lies in it's story and cast.
This is one of the more intelligent zombie films I have seen in some time. You can actually believe that this could really happen and the dialogue is so well written that you believe everything about the characters in the film and more importantly you care about them. And speaking of characters, the cast did a fantastic job bringing them to life and making them realistic and believable. The film doesn't have many characters but Jay Hayden, Andy Stahl, Tori White all give great performances.
To go on about the film and everything else about the film would only ruin the fun that awaits you but I will tell you that "State of Emergency" is one of the smarter films in the genre I have seen in some time. Turner Clay is a filmmaker that knows how to tell a story and how to get the most out of his cast, I look forward to seeing what he has coming out next. Available on DVD, the film comes with Special Features that include:
Deleted Scenes
Making Of
Visual Effects Featurette
You can order the DVD HERE.
This is sure to do well through strong word of mouth, a highly entertaining zombie flick that takes a stale genre and breaths new life into it. I highly recommend checking this out. Released by Image Entertainment
**** Out Of *****