BLOOD RUSH (2012)

Streaming on Tubi!
Directed by Evan Marlowe.
Written by Kerry Finlayson.
Starring Kerry Finlayson, Don Donnelley, Christy Lee Hughes, Helen Soraya, Samantha Michelle, Emrhys Cooper, John Wuchte, Myles Cranford, Kaden Graves, J.P. Giuliotti, Danielle Reierson, Charles Iacuzzo, Graniston Crawford, Amanda Barton, David Alen Smith.

Low budget zeeks were a dime a dozen in 2012. It seems anyone with a minimal make-up kit, a video camera, and a few extras are tried to cash in. I can understand the inferno that blazes in the talkbacks every time a new zombie film is announced. There are too many zombie films out there. But for some reason I find myself forced to watch as many as I can; the good ones, the bad ones, and the uninspired mehs. Now, BLOOD RUSH is a low budgeter, there’s no denying it, but though it borrows heavily from numerous higher profile zombie films and shows such as DAWN OF THE DEAD, THE WALKING DEAD, and 28 DAYS LATER, it does so with charm and some attention to detail you don’t often find with the adrenaline-filled action zombie fests we’re used to.

The film begins slowly as our star (Kerry Finlayson, who also wrote and produced the film) makes her way through a blood-splattered house and finds her best friend zombified. After wrestling with her through the house and out into the yard, she overcomes the zombie and sets out to find more survivors. Meanwhile, in a nearby town, an oblivious town council debates about recent outbreaks of sickness in their community. Cut off from the rest of the world, they don’t know that the dead are rising and eating people; they are just concerned about the power and water outages. By focusing more on the way folks can be extremely self-centered, even in a time of dire crisis, BLOOD RUSH is actually a pretty insightful film. Though the narrative is split between fleeing survivors and oblivious townies, the film balances the two narratives nicely, peppering the action bits nicely between selfish town’s council arguments.

Sure there are all types of zombie scenes that we’ve seen a million times, but the quieter dissections of a crumbling society are what interested me most about BLOOD RUSH. The acting ranges from ok to amateur and the effects are minimal, but in terms of depth of theme, BLOOD RUSH is one of the stronger low budget zeeks out there.