Rent Zombie Virus on Mulberry Street (2006)

Low budget horror. If you're a fan of the genre, see it - it's rather good - Zombie Virus on Mulberry Street review by RP

This is a rather good, low budget horror film. Rather good because it is claustrophobic, effective, well acted, well photographed, well directed film - and low budget because it was achieved with a reputed figure of only $60k.

The storyline holds no real surprises for a film in this genre - normal New Yorkers get bitten by virus-carrying rats, mutate into flesh-eating rat-like creatures, and attack. There are few survivors. Err, that's it.

So it's a bit of a creature-feature too - and there are no zombies. Quite where this UK DVD title came from I'm not sure - the original title was just 'Mulberry Street'.

The director is Jim Mickle who I first came across in the 2014 film 'Cold in July'. Jim Mickle shares writing credits with the lead actor, Nick Damici. Nothing like keeping it in the family: Jim Mickle's sister Beth is credited as Production Designer and has gone on to work on major films including 2011's successful 'Drive'.

If you're a fan of the genre, see it. I'll give it 4/5 stars - given the budget, it's above average for this kind of film.

Spoilers follow ... - Zombie Virus on Mulberry Street review by NP

This is exactly the kind of horror film I love. We are given a cast of realistic, very individual characters - the kind of people you might actually meet instead of quick-talking catwalk models - in a location you can identify with. Mulberry Street is in the throes of being destroyed, swept away by Manhattan developers who want to make the lived-in community extinct and make everything clean, new and faceless.

Director Jim Mickle, who worked on 2010’s ‘Stake Land’ invites us to spend the film's running time living in this location relishing in details of garbage-littered walkways, weathered, run-down apartment blocks ... and a flourishing infection, causing humans to develop into blood-thirsty rat creatures.

As is often the case in less prosperous communities, there is a dark and occasionally brutal humour prevalent here. The characters are endearing partly because of this, and when the gruesome transformations kick in, we care about what happens to them.

Bleak, uncompromising and with a genuine sense of spreading horror; my score is 9 out of 10.