BrinkDVD // 2008 // 91 Minutes // Rated R
Reviewed by Judge David Johnson // October 9th, 2009
Once it's unleashed, it can never be stopped.
Viruses, zombies, etc.
Darren Hall (Eric Peter-Kaiser) is a scientist who's been involved in a top-secret military experiment dealing with resurrecting dead combat soldiers via some creepy green chemical. Obviously, this isn't the greatest idea. As the opening sequence shows us, a zombie outbreak takes place and a lot of people succumb to hysterics and bite marks.
Hall manages to escape and setup shop in a bad part of town, overrun by gang members and beautiful neighbors who will sleep with you on the second date. Not a bad gig, if you get find it. Too bad he screws it all up by unleashing the virus, turning all of the building's residents into blood-crazed monsters.
Kudos to the packaging artists for creating a kick-ass cover design. Unfortunately, it fails to properly capture what actually goes down in the film. Less an action spectacle (as the cover would suggest) and more a straight-arrow zombie plague flick, Evilution is a serviceably undead chop-a-thon, nothing more. If you happen to be in the mood for something that won't challenge your perception of zombie movies and simply serve up the playbook, there's some modest enjoyment to be siphoned.
Even though it's straight formula, the zombie shenanigans are well-done. The beats play out as you'd expect, with some moderate character development -- mainly to separate the people we're supposed to recognize and sort of give a crap about from the cannon fodder. The few wrinkles in the game plan include a distinctively non-Alpha male lead and the inclusion of some "wacky" gangsters, but that's about it. What's left is a whole lot of stuff we've seen before.
Kudos to the effects crew for assembling some fine looking gore moments. When the @#$% hits the fan and the zombies go about doing their thing, the mayhem is bloody, goopy, and syrupy, and the kills are vividly satisfying. While I'm sure the budget wasn't exorbitant, the bloodshed is believable and (best of all) uninhibited by concerns of overdoing it within the runtime.
There you go, 91 minutes of familiar zombie territory, fairly well-executed though not very memorable. If you're yearning for a Friday or Saturday night with a low-impact horror flick, you could do a whole lot worse than Evilution.
The DVD is also low-impact: a 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, 5.1 Dolby Digital surround, and no extras.
Blood, guts, shifty acting, and a low-rent plot: it's a zombie flick.
For the genre, not guilty.
Review content copyright © 2009 David Johnson; Site layout and review format copyright © 1998 - 2013 HipClick Designs LLC
Scales of Justice
Video: 85
Audio: 85
Extras: 0
Acting: 75
Story: 75
Judgment: 76
Perp Profile
Studio: BrinkDVD
Video Formats:
* 1.85:1 Anamorphic
Audio Formats:
* Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround (English)
Subtitles:
* None
Running Time: 91 Minutes
Release Year: 2008
MPAA Rating: Rated R
Distinguishing Marks
* None
Accomplices
* IMDb
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt1032749/combined