Infected

Director - Glenn Ciano (Inkubus)
Starring - Christy Romano (Mirrors 2, Wolvesbayne), Michael Madsen (Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs), and William Forsythe (The Devil's Rejects, Halloween 2007)
Release Date - 2013
Genre - Horror
Tagline - "Can the human race survive once its blood stream becomes...INFECTED"
Format - Streaming (Netflix)

 Rating (out of 5):

     I love low-to-no budget flicks.  They are usually fun and made by someone that really gives a damn if they are entertaining me or not. However, sometimes I just want to see something with a little production value behind it.  Cue in the Wal-Mart horror.  Lately I have noticed that a lot of bigger budgeted horror films that I normally only saw at Wal-Mart are now on Netflix.  So I ventured off to Netflix to see what mediocre horror flick I could find when I came across this one.  The film said it starred Michael Madsen and William Forsythe so I was curious.  I like both those actors and was a little excited to see it though I did not have high hopes for it.
     The film follows three guys and their children as they prepare to spend a few days drinking and hunting.  The three fathers are a little rough around the edges.  Also, they are a little rough on their kids.  They want the best for their children but they are growing up a little soft so they brought them along on this trip to toughen then up.  However, the trip doesn't go according to plan.  The group is quickly under siege by people that have became infected and are now hellbent on destroying the human race.  They try to barricade themselves in but that does not help and the infected kill everyone except one person.  The film then jumps forward and the one survivor is now doing what has to be done to survive in a small settlement with other survivors.

     I am sick of the current state of the zombie sub-genre.  Due to The Walking Dead zombie films are no longer original.  Companies are just pumping out the same zombie flicks with different names knowing people will buy them because of how popular zombies and The Walking Dead are right now.  The movies take place in different locations and use different details but the formula is the same.  I wish people would steal a page from Thomas Berdinski and make films similar to the 70's wave of Italian zombie movies.  That should be a trend that replaces this modern 28 Days Later clones.  I love zombies but I'm tired of watching the same fucking movies over and over.  As for the film, the acting is great.  With a cast like this one that is to be expected.  Madsen and Forsyth were great in their roles and really steal their scenes.  However, Ren Stevens was horrible.  She made all her scenes uncomfortable and hard to watch.  When I was younger my sister loved Even Stevens and I was forced to watch multiple episodes.  Though I was not a fan I was still able to notice that she was a great actress so what the hell happened?  The story is one told hundreds of times with most of which are films released in the passed 4 years.  This is the same story I have seen in Humans vs. Zombies, The Demented, Dead Season, State of Emergency, and the list goes on and on.  The story is this; the world is in crumbles as a zombie plague has wiped out mankind except for a small stronghold of survivors.  Nothing more and nothing less.  Finally, we do get decent kills and the same can be said about the special effects.  This film does have a bigger budget than what I am used to watching and the special effects demonstrate that.  The zombies looks like your typical infected type zombies and the kills are stock bites and ripping flesh.  They look good but are nothing that special.  Overall, this is another zombie movie that offers nothing new but does kill an hour and a half.  It is worth at least one watch but I do not recommend buying it because it is not worth the price.