Exit Humanity (2011)

Number Rolled: 21

Movie Name/Year: Exit Humanity (2011)

Genre: Horror

Length: 113 minutes

Rating: NR

Director: John Geddes

Writer: John Geddes

Actors: Brian Cox, Mark Gibson, Dee Wallace, Bill Moseley, Stephen McHattie, Jordan Hayes, Adam Seybold, Ari Millen, Jason David Brown, Sarah Stunt, Christian Martyn

The movie started a little slow. For the first half-hour or so I was left wondering why I should care about the main character at all. I mean, his story was sufficiently heart wrenching, but why should I care about that? I don’t know this dude from a hole in the wall. In fact, I was left wondering if the movie would have any plot at all until “Chapter 2.” By the way, the movie is split into chapters… it makes sense for what they were doing though. Don’t take my word for it, watch the movie. You’ll understand.

Now, this movie is no A-list movie. However, I can’t say it’s a B-movie either. The make-up was some serious shit (in a good way) and the actors were insane (also in a good way). There was this one little kid zombie that gave me shivers that wouldn’t go away until he’d been off screen for at least ten minutes. There were some issues with the period dress and continuity. Some of the clothing was obviously current when it was meant to be staged in the 1800’s, and there were some mistakes involving fire and a gun that should have caused a decent sized explosion. I yelled at the TV a bit. I can’t lie.

There was a bit of animation to cover some of the bigger fight scenes; it was not CGI, it was animation. Seeing as it’s a near B-movie standing, I think it was a creative and acceptable way to get around funding issues. Instead of deciding to film the scenes as crap and put them in the movie, they found another way around it. To me, that right there is honorable. I’m much more ok sitting through a little stop-animation than a scene so bad it makes me want to stab my eyes out with the remote.

Despite the few issues I had with this movie, it has one of the best scripts I’ve seen in a long time. It wasn’t my favorite movie ever, I’ll admit that. I fall for a lot of the Hollywood CGI and fancy explosions. Who doesn’t like a nice big explosion now and again on their screen? However, I have yet to find a movie that is quite as well written as this one. John Geddes really blew this one right out of the water. My source indicated that he has one other full-length script out there for a movie, called “Scarce,” it’s not currently on the Netflix instant queue, but if I happen to come across it I’ll be adding it immediately.

One last thing. When the zombie apocalypse comes, do try to remember that perpetual screaming IS A BAD FUCKING IDEA. It’s in most zombie flicks, that constant rage scream, and it never (or rarely ever) attracts the horde of zombies it should. Stop it, writers. Stop it, actors. Stop it, directors. Don’t make me whack you on the noses with a newspaper. Enough.

Overall Opinion – 4/5