Directed by Rob Worsey, this 2022 UK flick is a zombie, or perhaps infected, movie. I would tend towards the former because, whilst the creatures are victims of a pandemic their very pale skin and black eyes give a more supernatural feel. They seem staggering (except when hunting) and seem to be able to last without food (this is in the countryside so without the population density of towns). However, either explanation works well.
There are very few of the creatures that we see, to be fair, and the film concentrates on the survivors and the brother and young sister pair of Harry (Dean Michael Gregory) and Lily (Melissa Worsey) in particular. Harry was, before the apocalypse, an accountant and the pair are fairly hapless. They are making their way across country, trying to find their father and the film is punctuated with Lily narrating her thoughts as she tells them to their absent mother (Emma Wise).
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| in the garage |
So why am I looking at this? Well, the creatures are rarely seen but the pair are always on guard from getting cuts as it is particularly blood that attracts them. They seem to be able to smell it from a great distance and if blood is spilt it is not long before the animalistic cries of one of the creatures can be heard. For instance, Lily cuts her side in a garage area and, despite quickly patching the cut with duct tape, there is the blood on the piece of metal that cut her. An infected crawls out from a space beneath the floor and is straight to the spill, literally licking the blood up.
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| after the blood |
The creature seems, at first, unaware of the two and when it does turn its attention to them, as they make their way out, a torch shone in its face wards it away. Whilst we do see them out in the day it does seem that bright light is an anathema. So it is the drive for blood – which is almost akin to the Will Smith version of I am Legend, the difference between the two being that the earlier film is based on a vampire novel, whereas this does feel like a zombie text with additional tropes that seem to have been borrowed from the vampire megatext.
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| living dead girl |
Beyond the blood and the (not entirely satisfactorily explained) light aversion there is little else. The creatures are not necessarily too bright. At one point Harry and Lily are camped in a tent and a survivor (Emily Rose Holt) tries to get in, seeking shelter. They refuse her entry and she tries to escape into the night as a creature is nearby. The creature gets to the tent and moves around it but, as neither is bleeding and they remain quiet, it soon moves on. We see the odd attack but not in enough detail to tell whether they are interested in the blood only, or the flesh as well.
The imdb page is here.
On Demand @ Amazon US
On Demand @ Amazon UK
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