Tweet
Released by: Bloody Disgusting Selects
Released on: June 19, 2012.
Director: John Geddes
Cast: Mark Gibson, Dee Wallace, Bill Moseley, Stephen McHattie
Year: 2011
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
Written and directed by John Geddes, 2011's Exit Humanity takes the played out zombie film (seriously, haven't we been bombarded with enough indy/low budget zombie movies these last few years?) and does a pretty good job of doing something a little bit different with it.
The film is set just after the American Civil War and it follows a former soldier named Edward Young (Mark Gibson) who has recently lost his wife to the zombies that now plague the countryside ever since an outbreak caused the dead to rise again. On top of that, his son his gone missing. With no one around to help him, Gibson decides to leave and head across the countryside in search of his son. Complicating his journey are, of course, the zombies but there's also the matter of General Williams (Bill Moseley) and a few other bizarre characters that he meets along the way.
A film with some fairly lofty ambitions, Exit Humanity is told through the perspective of Young's journal which is narrated to us by Brian Cox, and fairly effectively at that. The film features an interesting supporting cast with the likes of Bill Moseley, Stephen McHattie and Dee Wallace all appearing in the movie, though with the exception of Moseley's performance, the movie doesn't make as much out of these players as it could. Gibson does a fine job in the lead, however, playing his part with the right amount of pathos and tough guy attitude. He's doing what he has to do to survive, and we can't begrudge him that.
The effects are fairly decent though the movie does rely too often at times on some irritating shakey cam footage. The tendency to use animation here and there to bring parts of Young's journal to life is an interesting idea but it takes us out of the movie and feels out of place here. This is a film that sets some pretty lofty creative goals which, unfortunately it can't quite always hit. It does succeed more often than not on the strength of the art direction and the lead performance but some more judicious editing choices might have helped liven up the pace - at almost two hours in length it moves a little slow at times. Regardless, the good does outweigh the bad and Geddes and company have managed to craft something interesting out of a horror movie subgenre that seems to have been (if you'll pardon the pun), beaten to death as of late.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Exit Humanity looks just fine on DVD in 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen. Colors are sometimes intentionally muted but overall they look good as do black levels. A few minor compression artifacts pop up here and there but the image is clean, stable and shows pretty good detail as well.
The English language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound mix provided for the feature is also solid. It's not quite as enveloping as the latest big studio action film might be but there's enough surround activity going on throughout the movie to keep you on your toes. The levels are properly balanced and you'll have no problems understanding any of the performers as the movie plays out. An optional English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track is also included but there are no alternate language dubs or subtitles of any kind provided.
The extras kick off with the first of two commentary tracks - writer/direction John Geddes is joined by actors Mark Gibson and Adam Seybold to talk about making the movie. They discuss the themes and ideas that pop up in the film, how they tried to make something a little different, locations used for the shoot and a fair bit more. It's a good track with a lot of information. The other commentary finds Geddes taking lead again, this time joined by producers Jesse Thomas Cook and Matt Wiele. This covers some of the same ground but there's a bit more emphasis on the behind the scenes aspect of the production and some of the challenges they ran into getting the movie made.
Aside from the two commentary tracks, there's also a behind the scenes featurettes that clocks in at just over ten minutes. Here we see a whole bunch of onset footage, including some that details what happens when the weather doesn't cooperate, and we get a few interviews with some of the people who worked on the film including the composers. If you dug the movie, this is worth checking out.
The Final Word:
Not everything about Exit Humanity works perfectly but Geddes gets credit for at least trying something a little different with the increasingly burnt out zombie movie. The movie is fairly well acted and really nicely shot and it benefits from some solid locations, decent effects and some creative filmmaking techniques. It's a little longer than maybe it needed to be but the good certainly outweighs the bad here - this is one worth seeing.
