Rent Inmate Zero (2020)

Enjoyable zombie breakout. - Inmate Zero review by NP

I wasn’t overly enthused about watching this having read some reviews – which serves me right for reading them before watching! I honestly don’t know what some people want from a film. That’s to say, I enjoyed this.

It took me a while to appreciate the lead actress. Unlike other cast members, Jess Chanliau initially mumbles her lines and is incomprehensible some of the time. A shame, because Stone is very interesting and not a run-of-the-mill heroine, and when circumstances become more intense, her performance is excellent. The standard of acting elsewhere is often very good, with only a few performances not quite convincing.

The story involves a zombie breakout on an island prison. The location is beautifully filmed and we get a real sense of isolation. Also, as Warden Crowe insists, extreme measures must be taken not to allow the infection to spread onto the mainland.

The story moves at an energetic pace, features lots of well defined characters and at just over 90 minutes, gives us time to get to know them. There are some impressive moments of gore, and the infected are very convincing – descendants of films like ’28 Days Later’ rather than the shufflers from Romero’s vision.

I had a great time with this. My score is 8 out of 10.