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PANDEMIC (review)

Review by Joshua Gravel
Produced by John Suits, Michael Tadross Jr., Gabriel Cowan
Written by Dustin T. Benson
Directed by John Suits
Starring Rachel Nichols, Missi Pyle, Alfie Allen,
Mekhi Phifer, Paul Guilfoyle, Danielle Rose

Set in the not too distant future of 2017 an unknown virus has ravaged the United States and infected most of the population.  In this post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, a doctor, two soldiers, and a bus driver set out to rescue a group of survivors stranded in a school and to satisfy their own personal investigations on the side.

Pandemic is yet another entry in the infected / outbreak / “not a zombie, but a zombie” sub genre popularized by 28 Days Later and unfortunately adds little to the tired formula.

I can commend screenwriter Dustin T. Benson for writing a script with some well rounded characters who aren’t all the usual stereotypes and fodder, but unfortunately the rest of the story is a jumble of clichés and telegraphed reveals that just don’t hold up after seeing dozens of takes on the same concept.

The only thing which sets Pandemic apart from the shambling heard of direct-to-VOD outbreak movies is the film’s first person point-of-view premise by having the main characters wear cameras which feed back to a base.

This does help intensify the action and leads to a few inventive shots, but the fact that they break the first person view early on by cutting to security camera footage also breaks the viewer’s attention by alerting the viewer to the fact that someone has edited this footage and that these events have already happened.

(SPOILER ALERT)

The reason that this is so detrimental to the story and the film’s enjoyment is as follows:

Once the team arrive at the school and search for the survivors, the movie cuts to the school’s security camera footage showing a wide shot of a gym filled with the now deceased survivors

Seeing how the team never retrieved any security footage from the school implies that the footage was edited at the base which also indicates that they had access to this view of the school the entire time and would have known the survivors were dead prior to the rescue party leaving the base. You ruined your whole movie with one needless insert shot.

(END SPOILER)

In addition, nearly every exterior establishing shot is full of poorly rendered CGI fires and smoke along with an overused blood splatter plug-in which add to that video game atmosphere.

If you are going to tackle this over done sub-genre then you have to bring something really interesting to the table for the film to stand out or at least spend your budget on doing all of the effects practically so the audience can appreciate the gore.

Obviously I can’t recommend Pandemic; if you are in the mood for a CGI-filled first-person zombie-esque experience I recommend that you play a video game.

Pandemic is now playing in limited release and arrives on VOD and iTunes today

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