Rent Patient Z: The Infected (2013)

Spoilers follow ... - Patient Z: The Infected review by NP

Of all the gratuitous scenes of gore horror has provided us with, there’s little that makes me wince more than a close-up of a needle going in to someone’s arm and drawing blood. This and other tests are carried out on hard-up student Lucie Donovan (Tuckie White) as she applies to be accepted in what appears to be Top Secret research tests. She meets others in the group who are made up of the usual mix of agreeable and wince-inducing in manner. One by one, they are called into the relevant surgery for ‘treatment’ … and don’t come out again. Naturally, Donovan is left till last, sitting on her own.

The reactions to the resulting degradation and horrors are sadly expected. A torrent of ‘WTF, man?’ and testosterone-flooded males squaring up to each other. Whether this is the results of the treatment, or whether they are just resorting to base alpha-male instincts is unclear, but it doesn’t make riveting viewing.

The military experiment results in the various victims bleeding profusely and becoming ‘zombie-lites’. And ‘lite’ describes this film really. It is played well enough but there is nothing here that hasn’t been seen before, and often without the playground histrionics of many of the characters.