So this is a “modern classic” zombie movie — it’s from 2002, and famously was the movie that popularized fast zombies. It also clearly was a big inspiration for Robert Kirkman, with a protagonist that wakes up in a hospital with a zombie apocalypse already in progress (although apparently Kirkman denies this, and claims he didn’t even see it until after he’d written the first issue of The Walking Dead).

The movie starts off very post-apocalyptic — like, there is nobody around, not even zombies. This feels incongruous with the rest of the movie, where zombies pop up at the drop of a hat, but I’ll allow it because it’s effective at setting a mood. (However: The protagonist picking up a paper that has a headline about evacuations, and then tossing it down unread, is unforgivably absurd no matter how much latitude we grant for vibes. Dude’s gonna read that paper!)

The plot then goes into a familiar place: Our hero meets up with some other survivors, some of whom he likes and trusts, and some of whom are less trustworthy. Yadda yadda the promise of a cure, yadda yadda the military, yadda yadda the greatest monster of all is man.

So I can’t help but think I’m being unfair to this movie, because it apparently set the tropes that we’re still using decades later; if its beats and themes seem obvious and overdone, they maybe weren’t when this was made. And yet… the same is true of Night of the Living Dead, but its greatness still shines through. Maybe it’s that today’s zombie movies are far enough removed from Night to feel distinct and different, whereas they still feel exactly like this?

Anyway, recommended highly to people in 2002 or those who haven’t been exposed to modern zombie movies, and lightly to normal people of modernity. (Also, this movie is filmed in early digital video and it has a lo-fi aesthetic that bugs me. I’m fine with low-quality film, but I hate low-quality digital.)