Hey gang, Valkor here. And welcome to TOV 2016! We ended 2015 in an interesting yet fun, cinematic manner and I look to continue bringing you guys all the known and unknowns that the film world has to offer. This round we return to Australia where I’ve yet to view a bad film… until now. Today we’re taking a look at “Plague” (2015) and for you Walking Dead fans, you “might” enjoy this one… then again… (Heavy spoilers ahead).
In the world of Plague, mankind has been ravaged by a disease so heinous as to turn nearly every human being into zombies (they don’t call them zombies, but we know). The film opens with a pocket of survivors held up in a farmhouse bunker as they hide away from the undead that prowl the land. Within the group is Evie (Tegan Crowley) who tries her best to simmer down flaring temper as the group seemingly has been there for too long a time and they want to move on. But Evie is adamant to stay until her husband John (Scott Marcus) returns. With no sign of John, the rest of the group forcibly make their exit leaving Evie to stay behind and fend for herself. The very next day John is back and still things are tense. It gets so intense that John looks to off himself in the midst of an undead attack. And just when all seems dire, gunshots go off and to the rescue enter Charlie (Steven Jianai). He comes with the gift of survival; since the duo was looking to move on, Charlie believes where they are is the perfect place to hold up and they have all the supplies they’ll ever need.
One day John suffers a severe asthma attack and desperate to get the medication he needs, Evie begs Charlie to go and look for some. However Charlie isn’t going to do it for free and Evie has just what a man, who has been on the road alone for a long time, needs – sex! Mad hesitant at first, but wanting John to survive she does what she has to do and Charlie keeps his promise retrieving the medicine, saving John’s life in the nick of time. Tension between the three build to boil and things soon become confrontational. How does it all end? Keep reading and you’ll find out why. And if you’re not interested, simply stop reading right now and journey onward to other TOV pages.
In Plague, the undead take a back seat for all the drama, which might not sit well with some folks out there. I mean they have a presence, just not as heavy as one would like. But if you’re used to shows like “The Walking Dead”, then you get the idea of where this film is going. But I’ll admit… I’m not a fan of The Walking Dead. I don’t hate the show; it’s just not for me. And while I'm not a big fan of zombies either, there were a few zombie related films I enjoyed.
The Good:
The best part of Plague has to be any time before John enters the picture. There were loads of tension and some scares that caused me to jump a couple of times. But when that passed… I was left with…
The Bad:
Plague, for the most part, is less about a zombie attack and more about a heated love triangle that grows towards a fatal ending. But mostly this is a film that centers on Evie, who mainly wants her husband to be the man she has always wanted him to be - a real man, a manly man, a man who can take charge and get shit done rather than wallow around in self pity as he does before Charlie shows up. And each time she eggs him on to “be that man”, he does the exact opposite. Ultimately she takes a bullet to the shoulder and while a struggling John can only take her so far without Evie showing any will to go on, he decides to leave her be, to become a meal for the incoming zombies who are well on their way. And her response towards his action? She shoots him in the knee. Not only that but through that entire “weak, flopping around, can’t move BS” antics she did beforehand, Evie simply gets up and walks away leaving John behind to be eaten while she’s rescued. The film should have ended with everyone dead, because seriously? No one deserved to live. No. One!
The Ugly:
This section goes to John for not manning up to, standing back while his wife is taken away by another man so that he can have his way with her. Seriously John? Gun in hand? Pointed right at Charlie? All you had to do was shoot, but no. Yea eventually he does shoot Charlie – AFTER he’s done the deed with his wife a second time. And if you guys do decide to watch this film, even after this review, then let me warn you ahead of time that there are a few more scenes where John is a complete puss. And if that’s the whole point of this film, John needing to man up, then I get it. I don’t like it but I get it.
Plague is currently available on iTunes and while you Walking Dead fans might be more familiar with this style of film, others might not enjoy it so much. And though I was captivated at the start, the end result left me wanting something truly scary. Plague packs way too much drama in a film that should be mostly horror and in the end it gets a 1 out of TOV 5 stars.
