THE TERROR EXPERIMENT (2010)

Directed by George Mendeluk
Written by D. Todd Deeken
Starring C. Thomas Howell, Judd Nelson, Jason London, Robert Carradine, Lochlyn Munro, Serah D’Laine, Alicia Leigh Willis
Check out the trailer here!!

I can’t muster up any kind of praise for this unimaginative riff on the zombie genre. Though everyone involved in this DIE HARD WITH ZOMBIES seem to be reaching for the stars in both performances and writing, THE TERROR EXPERIMENT just kind of felt limp to me. Ideas lifted directly from 28 DAYS LATER and a multitude of other zombie/infection films doesn’t help make this film any more memorable. I am having a hard time finding something positive to say about this obvious soon-to-be entry in SyFy’s long list of bad horror films shown late on Saturday nights.

One thing I can say is that the filmmakers involved do a lot with very little. Stock footage and the use of narration from radio and TV do a decent job of making this low budgeter feel like it is taking place on a grander scope. Narration of events occurring while looking through the windshield of a moving police car is a decent way of building that level of illusion necessary for filmmakers with budgetary restrictions, and the guys behind the camera show some creative chutzpah here. But when I’m lauding the corners taken to make the film, though, you know I’m grasping for straws at something positive to say.

The film is a veritable who’s who of “where the hell have they been?” actors. Judd Nelson, C. Thomas Howell, Jason London, and Robert Carradine all show up to let us know that they are still alive and kicking, though you wouldn’t believe it from the lack of energy in their performances. The story follows an experiment gone wrong and a terrorist group set to incite the end of the world to save it with a virus which turns people into mindless berserkers. The infected act very much like the Rage-filled monsters from the 28 DAYS LATER franchise, yet occasionally seem more like the Romero zombies who retain some of their humanity after death.

I wish I could say more about this film, but apart from having a cast of stars that don’t seem to want to be there and a plot you can find in fifty better films, THE TERROR EXPERIMENT just didn’t really do a lot for me. The filmmakers seem to know how to work around a budget and stretch it to make it look bigger than it really seemed, which is definitely an impressive quality to possess.