'The Rezort' (2015)

So I had a pretty busy weekend, lots of fun but very busy and that ended up meaning that I didn't get any reading done at all. Not one page.

Once everythng finally quietened down yesterday evening, all I was in any state to do was watch something deliberately awful on Prime. I was going to watch 'House Shark' but figured there's only so much you can do with that concept and the run time was under two hours long... Not for me then. In the end, I settled on 'The Rezort', purely because I'd seen it before so could zone out a bit if I needed to. Not only that but I remembered it being a half decent film as well. Couldn't go wrong with that, surely... As it happened no, no I couldn't.

DAY ONE: RELAX. DAY TWO: HUNT. DAY THREE: RUN Following a near-apocalyptic zombie outbreak, humans are once again in control. If an occasional rogue zombie finds its way into everyday life, it is quickly disposed of by the authorities. In this day and age, people know how to handle "Zee's". The latest craze is the Zombie Safari - Zafari - a chance to go out and shoot the un-dead in the wild. The ultimate blood sport experience, and for many the ultimate therapeutic revenge following the losses su!ered during the outbreak. Little do the vacationers realise they're actually in a highly controlled environment, where the zombies are always kept at a safe shooting distance. Nothing is left to chance, nothing is unplanned. So far...

A good zombie film always does something interesting with zombies and the people that they are trying to eat. The best zombie films (and you know who I'm talking about here) use zombies to say something about out society, generally how messed up it is. 'The Rezort' delivers on the first point but doesn't hit the target as well for the second. It's a good job then that there is plenty of room, in this film, for moments that make you jump (you can see some of these coming but the ones that are a surprise...)

I like to believe (in my more optimistic moments) that if humanity could learn a few lessons in 'how to get on' then we would absolutely win a 'Zombie War'. The post war 'clean up' will naturally raise some awkward questions then and I liked the way that this film answers this question by tapping into society's need to constantly be making money. A Zombie Apocalypse theme park! What could possibly go wrong...? We'll talk about that in a bit but I liked the idea of this one 'Rezort' serving different needs in the survivors of the war. Be it revenge (for more than one reason) or for our main character to work through the trauma of surviving the war, everyone is there for a reason that makes actual sense and I love that; it means that I can concentrate on the actual film instead of plot holes.

Dougray Scott's Archer comes across as a little bit wooden but when you realise that he is effectively still fighting the war and doing it singlehandedly. Jessica De Gouw's Melanie has top billing and plays her part superbly, going on a journey that starts with her being vulnerable and will end up... Well, hopefully not dead and eaten. Not that I'm downplaying the gore, I love the gore, but I love horror that takes a moment out to let its characters just bounce off each other. 'The Rezort' does this brilliant.

It's a bit of a shame when film makers really go all out to make sure we get their message and that's very much what we get here. If I see a refugee camp and have no real idea where all the refugees have disapeared to then it doesn't take much to figure and then you have a more time to ponder the rest of the film. This is a shame because this takes over a large part of the film and a part, in particular, where the film needed to hurry up instead of slowing right down like it did.

It's not the end of the world though as the rest of the film belts along with of zombies and a cast of idiot man children who are just there to make up the numbers every time someone needs to be eaten. And the gore, there's plenty of that. 'Rezort' isn't top end zombie viewing but it's still on Prime if you fancy watching it and if you like zombie films, it's an enjoyable enough way to spend an hour and a half.