Movie review: Re-Kill

Five years ago a virus outbreak wiped out 85% of the world's population, but the Re-Animates (Re-Ans) remain a threat rendering most major cities uninhabitable. Tasked with containing the Re-Ans, militant R-Division hunts down the zombies who they then re-kill.

Bruce Payne (Winston), Scott Adkins (Parker), Daniella Alonso (Matthews), Layke Anderson (Tom), Ian Casselberry (Bones), Roger Cross (Sarge), Owen Davis (B-camera), Dimiter Doichinov (Adams).

Re-Kill is a simulated reality TV show which follows the R-Division as they seek out and re-kill those who have died and then reanimated due to a zombie virus. Uninfected humans are no longer at the top of the food chain being outnumbered by, and ill-equipped to defend against, the Re-Ans. As R-Division struggles to prevent a second outbreak, which appears more and more likely, work continues on an escape plan for humanity.

Acting was a bit rough here. Cross was possibly the most experienced actor in this one and he did fairly well. Sadly, he was seriously underused as well. Payne did reasonably well as did the rest of the cast. I'm loathe to comment on acting here as the film, try as it might, didn't connect us well with the characters nor did presentation or delivery seem to be a focus.

Camera work, sets, and backgrounds felt pretty good but with the now overused theme of simulated reality TV, the shaking poor color out of focus scenes were a bit tiresome. At the same time, scenes showing zombie outbreaks did a nice job of impressing upon us the urgency and desperation of encountering a zombie horde. Action scenes were okay but more detail would have been nice. Dialogue was a bit rough, dry at times, and somewhat pointless. Sound and soundtrack were decent.

It may be hard to keep a good zombie down, but it seems to be even more difficult to make a solid zombie flick. While the zombies in Re-Kill are pretty good with a higher rating than some on the scary-scale, the rest of the film just didn't support them well. Die-hard zombie fans may find some entertainment here but probably not much.

With violence, gore, foul language, and some sexuality this should be fine for older teens and above.

Released: 2015
Reviewed: 3.20.16
Star rating: 1 out of 5
Genre: Zombies, Horror, Apocalyptic films, Sci-Fi Horror, Action Horror

copyright ©2016 Dave Riedel