Directors: Ben Howling, Yolanda Ramke
Writer: Yolanda Ramke
Stars: Simone Landers, Martin Freeman, Marlee Jane McPherson-Dobbins
Run Time: 1 Hour, 45 Minutes
Synopsis
Andy, his wife Kay, and baby Rosie are cruising down the Australian river on their houseboat as they see a family having a picnic. The man on the bank pulls a gun, so we can see things aren’t quite normal. We soon see that there’s a pandemic on, and supplies are getting scarce. Kay wants to give up the boat and go inland, but Andy wants to keep heading toward the military base downstream. They’re running out of food, so they may not have many options.
Meanwhile, we get short flashes of Thoomi, a local kid who is living alone in the Australian wilderness.
They find another wrecked boat and he raids it for supplies. Andy gets a bunch of good stuff, but when Kay goes over there, she runs into something less pleasant. She comes back to the boat with a bad bite, and the first thing she does is put on a timer-watch with a 48 hour countdown on it. Andy wants to try for a hospital, so they leave the boat behind. They find a car and get on the road, narrowly missing what looks like a pair of zombies. Not long after, Kay starts having siezures.
They swerve to miss a zombie in the road and crash the car, which impales Kay. Andy passes out, and when he wakes up, Kay is dead, or actually undead– she bites him. Andy’s ready to give up, but he has to get Rosie to safety first. He sets his 48-hour watch and gets on with things. The zombie who caused the accident is Thoomi’s father, so the two end up meeting.
He makes it to the hospital, and Etta, the one woman there, looks at his bite. She says that the old Australian families have gone back to their old ways and left modern civilization behind. He sees their campfires that night after dark.
We get a flashback to Thoomi and her father, Willie, talking to “The Clever Man,” who talks about modern people poisoning the land, so they are all going to get sick. That same evening, Andy starts having convulsions- he’s very clearly infected.
Etta tells Andy to go find Willie, who will be able to take of Rosie. Andy doesn’t tell her that Willie was infected. She also warns him that there are men with guns roaming the area looking to “cleanse the area” of those who are infected.
Andy meets up with Vic, who has a truck and tells him that the army base has been overrun, so that’s not a good place. Vic takes them home to meet his wife, Lorraine. Vic has plans for when things get back to normal, but Lorraine knows there’s not going to be a return to normal.
Vic takes Andy zombie hunting. There’s a swarm of them surrounding a cage, and he’s got Thoomi locked in that cage for bait, which Andy doesn’t like. He soon learns that Vic’s got several native people locked in cages, including The Clever Man.
Andy is ready to use the suicide pen, but Lorraine stops him. She wants away from Vic, who killed her real husband. Vic finds them together, and Andy finds himself waking up in the cage with Thoomi as zombie approach. Thy escape the cage and head back to the gas factory where Vic and Lorraine live.
Vic shoots Lorraine, and Andy and Thoomi get away. They go to let The Clever Man out of his cage, but he’s already gone. Later that night, Andy starts to turn, but he fights it off; his timer isn’t done yet. Thoomi explains about the Clever Man, a magic man who can heal sick people and even put their souls back again.
The find Willie, dead, killed by the hunters. Andy, Thoomi, and Rosie start heading back to the river, where they hope to find Andy’s boat again. It’s still there, so they go off to find Thoomi’s family. They find the family who had the father draw the gun earlier. Andy wants them to take Rosie, but that family is infected already.
They cross a high bridge and see a bunch of zombies eating something. Then they have to go through a dark train tunnel and pass a bunch of hibernating zombies. At the other end of the tunnel, the find… Vic. Andy and Vic fight, and Andy eventually gets the baby back. Thoomi’s injured in the fight, and Andy helps her out.
Not long after, Andy turns into a zombie, but he doesn’t stop being helpful to Thoomi and Rosie as they soon make to Thoomi’s people, including her mother, Clever Man, and safety. The family ends up killing Andy.
Commentary
There’s nothing more annoying than a baby crying through a movie. It’s even worse when it’s part of the movie. Fortunately, they calm that down after the first half hour.
So, it’s another zombie movie. The unique side of this one is the Australian outback and the indigenous people there. This one, unlike a lot of zombie films, really catches the “end of the world” vibe. It’s the desolation and isolation of the outback that does it, much more than an urban setting.
It’s not the most innovative zombie film we’ve seen, but it’s different enough to make it worthwhile.