Movie Review – Pandemic (2016)

Starring: Rachel Nichols, Missi Pyle, Alfie Allen, and Mekhi Phifer.

As studios continue churning out more and more content, and films of both bombastic and toned down natures are getting released at rapid fire clips all 53 weeks of the year, it is getting harder and harder to stick out amongst the pack. If there is one thing I can give Pandemic credit for, it is in its effort to do so. Yes, it is a story we have seen played out a hundred times before. Yes, it is set in a dystopian environment we have seen maybe even more times before. But Pandemic strains to tell a story within its frames that aims to pull us in, making it even more of an experience than if it just concerned a released zombie epidemic. While there are portions of director John Suits’ (Extracted) film that work, the majority of it kind of feels like a run around the block you take at a house you have lived in since you were 2 years old. By the time you’re 12, it’s kind of hard to do so with the same amount of jump to your step you had previous.

Like I said at the beginning of this review, Pandemic‘s plot is wrought with a lack of original story ideas. A virus has taken over the planet, and we have reached the point where the infected have outnumbered the uninfected. Our only hope for survival involves finding a cure while keeping the infected at bay. Enter Lauren (Star Trek 2009‘s Rachel Nichols), a doctor from New York who arrives in Los Angeles in order to lead a team of mercenaries to find survivors and hunt the infected.

In a way, I feel bad for Suits and company because by nature, anything new in the zombie genre is not going to inspire anything we have not seen before. In decades past, you would have to go to the movies to see human on zombie, or vice versa, type gore. But now, any person with a TV sees it every Sunday night on AMC. There are in fact many impaled skulls, shotgunned ribs, and chewed skin in Pandemic. But all these scenes have a bit of a ‘been there, done that’ feel. Which is why it was important for Suits and screenwriter Douglas T Benson to pepper in a couple twists to keep you guessing, something that is indeed attempted, with unfortunately mixed results.

As an example of how Pandemic tries to stick out, the film is shot about 80% in first person view, justified story wise as cameras people wear while in the field. This form of narrative is developed in the film’s beginning scenes, and is a tough thing to get used to if you have never in your life played a Playstation game which uses the same device. Eventually, the style works at enhancing Suits’ scenes, and viewers are taken into characters’ shoes without feeling hunkered to the chaotic palpation people complain about with most found footage type films, and the sequential storytelling makes it a non factor. There are even instances in Pandemic that play out just like a beginning scene in any one of these games would. For example, if we see from a character’s point of view her being told that whatever she does, to NOT walk off the yellow line, what do you think she is going to do?

Pandemic tries hard to endear us to Lauren, showing us home videos of what we can only at this point assume is her former life in the film’s first few frames. She moves through the story, almost like that of a lost and hungry puppy, reinforcing her credentials and telling other characters -as well as us- that she is indeed suited to lead this operation. The film throws in a bit of a twist at around the 3/4 mark that is far from a make or break moment. But could indeed cause a bit of eye rolling if people aren’t looking for it.

While I cannot fully endorse Pandemic, it is far from a painful movie viewing experience. It does have a few nice sequences -one on a bus, in particular- and a very well timed jump scare involving night vision that I did not see coming, and it does indeed have some nice gory moments every fan of the zombie genre craves. But the unfortunate matter of Pandemic‘s existence is that we have indeed seen 99.9% of it before, and by the time the film is over, the only thing a zombie addict is likely to feel is yet another tendency to go through their The Walking Dead for the 10th time.

6 out of 10