Vamp or Not? Dead Zone

This was a film, released in 2022 as a Tubi original, and directed by Hank Braxtan. On the surface it seemed like an apocalyptic zombie flick, with perhaps some debt to Resident Evil with a mutated creature but scratch the surface of that creature and suddenly I felt the urge to look at it through the lens of ‘Vamp or Not?’

So, an intertitle tells us that “Spontaneous viral outbreaks have overwhelmed the world. The disease turns healthy humans into vicious predators. Cities are evacuated, radiation bombs are used to kill the infected. Bombed locations are referred to as Dead Zones.” The film then has two people, Goodman (Whitney Nielsen, Bloodsucka Jones) and her brother, wearing makeshift radiation protection and masks as they move through a Dead Zone. They use a small car bomb to attract infected to the car, which is ablaze, and then a larger bomb to kill them. They get to where they were going and the brother scouts ahead. Something gets him.

in the Dead Zone

Anyway, the town had a lab that was working on a cure and the military want to retrieve the potential cure they developed before they went silent. Master Chief (Jeff Fahey, From Dusk till Dawn: the Series) sends a group of soldiers in hi-tech anti-radiation battle suits (whose helmets are not as reliable as they should be, it later transpires) to get the potential cure and bug out. However, they get in trouble, meet and are helped by Goodman and then find themselves hunted by the thing that killed her brother and it is this I want to look at.

the creature

So the creature is a mutant, as I mentioned. It can crawl on ceilings and doesn’t like light (it seems to cause it distress but it doesn’t destroy it). The thing that drew me to it was the fact that where the infected (who may well be zombies, given they are still running around with enough radiation in the atmosphere to kill a person pretty darn quickly) seem to be violent (and probably this is the disease's chosen vector) it actively is seeking out blood and hunting. A couple of things to note with that, firstly they do find a cure and have to use it and it doesn’t like blood with the vaccine. Secondly is the method of feeding.

stinger emerges

The creature has big hands with huge claws but also a maw full of sharp, vicious fangs. However, the creature feeds with a long, extending tongue that it penetrates its victim with. The tongue itself is prehensile and can be used to grab a victim also. The creature’s death (not a spoiler – the question is not whether it dies but how many humans it kills and who survives) is brought about by injecting it with the last syringe of vaccine. This is thrust into the chest, round about heart level and then hammered home – making it stake like. This does not kill it but incapacitates it. The death is caused by setting off an explosion into gas and burning it.

staked by syringe

So, Vamp? Well it is definitely vampiric. It is hunting to get blood and the tongue is reminiscent of the stingers that Del Toro used in Blade 2 and The Strain. I don’t know whether the aim was to emulate staking with the vaccine but, of course, a stake in the heart is often used to immobilise rather than kill. The creature shows both cunning and intelligence as it hunts, unlike the standard infected who just run towards stimuli and then attack anything uninfected without discernment or plan. I’d say that the creature is close enough to call vamp. As for the film it is a low-budget take your brain out actioner, and such brain removal is necessary so you don't wonder (amongst other things) how it is that the power companies keep all the lights burning in a post-apocalyptic, irradiated town!

The imdb page is here.