Pandemic
At the heart of this movie, it’s just another zombie flick.
Not to degrade at all the quality of the movie. It’s rare that I have come across a zombie movie I did not like. when you make a zombie movie, it tends to be filled with great drama and social satire that puts it a step above the horror genre it lies in.
Pandemic is no different. The film centers around just a few people in the middle of some sort of epidemic that hit the world and the military attempts to take care of it.
Pandemic takes up a found footage format, I know there is another name for the genre but I call it found footage. The movie takes place from the camera’s point of view, with all the characters aware of it because they are the one’s filming it. No longer the unique way of doing the narrative, but it still makes for an intriguing one.
The military team that centers Pandemic’s plot has been assigned to go through the city looking for lab rats to find the cure for the decease that’s plaguing the world. The team has to wear hazmat suits to prevent infection, and the suits have cameras in the helmets, taking in all the action, and it does make for a very kinetic story telling method.
In a lot of these found footage movies you usually get actors who you never really herd of. In this case I’m familiar with the actor Mekhi Phifer, most fans of the Divergent series would recognize him as well. He plays a soldier who was a traffic cop before the apocalypse, and hopes that being part of the military will help him find the wife he lost, still alive.
Another face I recognize is Missi Pyle who I’ve seen in a bunch of different big profile movies (I just finishing watching her in Galaxy Quest). She plays a doctor who also lost her son before the apocalypse, and wishes to save lives.
The main character is Lauren, played by Rachel Nichols, who I do recall playing Scarlet in the first G.I. Joe film. She’s a scientist who may have the key to saving the world.
And last but not least was the guy who played Theon Greyjoy from Game of Thrones who plays a criminal that drives the bus. I feel like the purpose of this guy is to add a variety to the four main characters. It helps the fuel the idea of people from different places coming together to survive. Thought out the movie, Phifer’s character is a hard ass, but we always knew his soft spot, his wife. With the criminal, wheeler we never know exactly what he’s up too, which makes him seem like the wild card of the group that could be used anytime to change the story.
These four are living in a zombie movie, even though the movie tries to be more creative by not calling it a Zombie movie. Early on, we learn how the infection works, it works on levels. Level one just feels like a cold while the fourth level shows the signs of being undead, but when you get to the lesser known level five, that’s when you become full on walking dead-Style.
Though the infection seems similar to Danny Boyle’s movie 28 Days Later, the design of the Zombies remind me of the comic book Cross (and if you like both comic books and zombies I suggest you check it out).
The found footage look give it a P.O.V feel that is similar to a first person shooter. Watching Pandemic is like watching a video game with four players that are hunting down “The Infected”
It amazes me how so many zombie movies use the term inflected. It seems like they use the word to create a world in which they never herd of zombies. Same thing as in the Walking Dead. Early on, someone on the show called them zombies, and they decided they should be called Walkers. why? because somewhere down the line the word Zombie got cheesy? Like anyone cares what they are called when they’re eating your brains out.
No matter what the movie Pandemic calls them, it’s still a fantastic zombie movie. Four people from different parts of life coming together to survive everyone’s favorite style of Apocalypse, with plenty of horror an action to keep it interesting.
