What’s up with all the undead in popular media as of late? You’d have to have been hibernating in a coffin to have not recognized the overwhelming popularity of the vampire movie over the last few years. During this time, the zombie flick has always been the also ran. But, it seems that with the recent popularity of AMC’s The Walking Dead, the zombie movie is set to become the new rage. Enter Colin, a little film from the U.K. with plenty of chills despite its lack of budget and casting of total unknowns. Apparently, writer and director Marc Price created the film with a budget of seventy-five dollars, which is beyond unheard of. Consider that Kevin Smith’s Clerks cost about $30,000 to make and you will marvel while watching this.
In a nutshell, Colin tells the now-familiar tale of a mysterious zombie outbreak in which our protagonist Colin is bitten and infected. Everything you’ve ever seen in a zombie movie is now turned on its ear. For the first time, we witness the story from the zombie’s perspective instead of the living hero’s. This is pretty bleak fare, for sure. Easily one of the more harrowing scenes involves Colin’s sister not wanting to give up on him despite his undead status. Blood is thicker than water, right? Well, ol’ sis gets bitten for her troubles and you probably know the rest of the story.
The only real problem I had with the film was with the low light levels that director Price shot in. There were fairly large sections of the movie that were literally invisible, perhaps intentionally? In any case, the poor lighting did contribute to the overall moodiness of the film, so I guess it worked on some level. This is totally recommended for fans of the genre. It’s nice to see that there are some filmmakers who are thinking outside the box while choosing to work with a potentially tired theme. (colinmovie.com)