Steve Barker’s The Rezort takes place in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse where humanity has managed to defeat the zombie threat and rebuild society again.

There are some interesting themes going on here. We’ve seen plenty of stories set during a zombie apocalypse but very few dealing with the aftermath once the problem has been solved. This film does attempt to answer the questions of what humanity might do once society was functioning again and it’s hard to claim that an attraction where people could shoot the undead in a safe environment wouldn’t be constructed.

With that comes the activist groups that think such a thing is wrong and must be stopped so there’s a decent grounding in some sense of reality that makes this feel like something that may happen under these circumstances.

The problem is that none of these interesting ideas are explored with any degree of depth. Both sides of the argument are represented in the group that we follow but the execution of the debate is weak at best and non existent at worst.

A major part of the problem is that the characters are really weak. The main focus is on Melanie (Jessica De Gouw) who is encouraged to visit The Rezort to shake herself out of the fear and self doubt that she feels all of the time. Unfortunately those fears just come across as blandness which I entirely attribute to the script since I’ve seen De Gouw be a very capable actress on Arrow. There is nothing to her character so it’s impossible to be invested in her.

The rest of the cast don’t fare much better. Dougray Scott is fine as the gun toting badass of few words but the character is entirely one dimensional so there’s no real sense of why we should care whether we live or die. The rest of the group contain other stereotypes like a self righteous activist named Sadie (Elen Rhys) who doesn’t put across her beliefs very well at all, obnoxious teenagers who have dialogue that indicate that writer Paul Gerstenburger has no idea how teenagers talk and Melanie’s personality free boyfriend, Lewis (Martin McCann).

As you might expect the plot is entirely predictable as well but the film doesn’t actually hide from that. The opening details the end of the situation with the rest of the story flashing back so at least there is no pretending that anything remotely new is going to happen. I also have to point out the clear inspiration from Jurassic Park with a dangerous theme part like setting that has state of the art security doomed to fail.

Despite the numerous failings I actually quite enjoyed this film. It does trot out every zombie cliche in the book and all of the characters are thinly drawn caricatures but the whole experience is well paced with some entertaining moments throughout. It’s never going to be considered high art but there are some moments of well handled jeopardy. Maybe I was appreciating it on an ironic level but there is some enjoyment to be had here even if it will be quickly forgotten after it has been experienced.

Verdict

A deeply flawed film that manages to be somewhat entertaining in spite of itself. The characters are thinly drawn caricatures and the plot is laughably predictable but there are some well executed moments of tension and peril and the whole experience is well paced. It’s entirely forgettable but inoffensive while it’s on.