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Cast: CHRISTIAN ACKERMAN, JESSE HEAD, JOEL BAIRD, DANIELLE ACKERMAN, TYLER WITTENBERG, SCOTT RANF, APRIL DEPEE, DAVID MOBLEY, JACK KOLBERG, MEREDITH HULS
In a small town of Wisconsinville, Montana a scientist, Dr. Winston (Joel Baird), works in a lab on a new experiment. While developing a new type of preservative for the snack cake industry he creates an artificial living organism. Dr. Winston creates a humanoid from the formula. They mutate and break free from the doctor's laboratory. Now, they have escaped the lab and into the town of Wisconsinville. Suddenly, the humanoids enter the town destroying and killing everything in their path.
A full out battle ensues; exploding heads, exploding humanoids, gun fire, coffee fire, body parts, and 80's horror mayhem! The small town underdogs give the humanoids a brutal beating. Now, they find Dr. Winston, who insist that he can make more humanoids. And, he can make them better. Ralphie (Christian Ackerman), and his group of friends strongly disagree. Dr. Winston ignores the groups' concern and heads back to his lab. Ralphie and the gang try and stop him from creating more humanoid monsters before it is too late. An action packed full throttle high voltage fully loaded B-Movie Monster Flick. Time is running out and the small town of Wisconsinville is in big trouble. Mutant humanoid monsters are running a muck and people's lives are in danger. Something has gone horribly wrong.
I don't have the numbers here but "Wisconsin Project X" could possibly be the lowest budget Independent film ever made, it certainly was done on the cheap but for a few reasons that never seems to take anything away from the experience. Director, Christian Ackerman uses what he has to work with to perfection, from the way the film looks, which I felt only enhanced it because it was easier to hide certain effects to the effects themselves which might have been done on the cheap but they look very cool and perhaps better than they should, I also felt the fake blood spraying added some extra coolness to the whole proceedings. The film itself wastes no time getting to the action, a quick set-up to the story and we're off and running. There's no character development here at all but there's no need for it either, after all it's a zombie movie so I was perfectly fine with that. If you're a fan of all the watered down Hollywood horror films that are released today then you might not get or appreciate the "Wisconsin Project X" but if you're a fan of zombies or Indie horror in general then I highly recommend checking this one out. The film has such a frantic pace that there's no time to be bored or even take notice of the film's limitations. My only complaint is that the 63 minute runtime left me wanting more, lots more. The ending leaves it open for a sequel and I for one would love to see it happen.
A ton of credit has to go out to Christian Ackerman who not only directed the film but starred in it too, this man has more imagination and creativity than most Hollywood directors today, this must of been a labor of love for all involved and in the end it really paid off. Taking everything into consideration here I was really impressed and I had a blast watching the film, I look forward to seeing whatever this talented Director comes up with next. As far as the acting goes it's what you would expect from a low budget film like this but I thought the cast did a fine job. If Indie horror is your thing then you owe it to yourself to check "Wisconsin Project X" out when it arrives on DVD on July 5th. The DVD will come with Special features that include:
Two Audio Commentaries
Behind The Scenes
Deleted Scenes
None of them were available on the copy I received to review but I'm sure they will give you a lot more insight on what it was like to make the film on such a small budget. You can order the DVD HERE.
Released by Midnight Releasing
**** Out Of *****