Director(s) – Denny Barnes (It Could Be Love) and Ken Moralez (Holy Toast)
Starring – Anthony Fitzgerald (Chromeskull: Laid to Rest II), Patrick Lazzara (The Bunnyman Massacre), Jadi Stuart (Iron Ridge)
Release Date – 2014
Rating – 3/5
Tagline – “Trust no one. Not even yourself”
The zombie film has saw it’s rise and fall many times over the year with each one coinciding with one film (or television show) soaring so high they become embedded in pop culture. 1978 saw the release of Dawn of the Dead and for several years we saw hundreds of zombie films (and even a few rip offs) released to the masses. We have had many films spark small booms in the zombie sub-genre but the television show The Walking Dead has made the sub-genre as popular as ever with film after film popping up using plots involving the undead.
That brings me to the new film The Hideout. I was asked to check this film out and I can’t say no to a zombie film. Sadly, my wife’s health prevented me from seeing this film until now and for that I would like to apology for taking so long to review.
**Spoiler Alert**The film follows a petty criminal who takes on a job to hold up a place to pay off his debt to a loan shark. He takes the job and, along with three other criminals and a girl, hit the place up and leave with the cash in hand. They head out into the desert to hand the cash over and snuff out one of their men for being a police informant.
However, their boss never shows but dozens of infected people do. They seek refuge in a old cabin but their greed starts tearing them apart until only the petty criminal and the young girl are left to fend of the hungry dead so they can make off with the cash. **Spoiler Alert**
I like when films try to cross genres and step outside of the norm. When a horror film steps out of the blood and gore covered path to become something different usually leaves something very unique in it’s wake.
When I first started watching this film I immediatly got the Cockney’s vs. Zombies vibe. I had never seen that film other than the trailers but it felt very close to that. It did lack the humor that film showed (in it’s trailer at least). The story did incorporate a great deal of crime drama and horror which was refreshing. Sadly, the story was unable to build on the characters and give us some we could like. Instead, the film gives us characters we could care less if they died or not.
The acting in this film was actually pretty damn solid by the entire cast. They all showed tremendous amounts of talent which helped this film along tremendously. Finally, the film does have a few on screen kills with most using practical effects which were pretty solid. However, the undead did not have that great amount of practical effects applied to them which made for some confusion. The undead and the living looked the same which made it hard to tell them apart. If more of the special effects were applied to the undead then the film would have went a long way.
Overall, The Hideout is a great zombie crime drama. If you like criminals and the gut-munching undead then this film is right up your alley. Check it out!
