The ReZort (2015) Review
The ReZort proves that there’s still life in the undead! Rather than go through the familiar tropes of establishing characters before a zombie outbreak takes a big bite of nearly everyone, The ReZort bypasses the outbreak, it’s already happened ten years prior, wiping out a third of the world’s human population! Following a near-apocalyptic zombie outbreak everything has pretty much returned to normal for the human race.
Zombies are now referred to as ‘Zee’s’ and the latest craze is the Zombie Safari which affords paying folks the opportunity to hunt and shoot the undead out in the wilds of an isolated island. The experience is seen as therapeutic revenge however the participants are not aware that the environment is controlled ensuring that zombies are kept at a safe shooting distance and chained together…for now! Before you can say ‘Jurassic Park’ the island’s computers are hacked, the systems fail and the zombies are unleashed.
I wasn’t expecting much from British zombie film The ReZort considering it yet another in the never-ending stream of zombie movie mayhem but, like The Girl With the Gifts and Plan Z, it offers a fresh spin that the otherwise flagging genre really needs. And as with The Girl With All The Gifts the zombie plague has been around for awhile and the film details how humans have adapted to the undead presence.
The ReZort may be unfairly overlooked by genre fans that feel that they have had enough of the undead corpsing up their screens but for those that do give it a spin they will emerge fulfilled and wondering why it is that other zombie output fail to attempt something fresh too. Admittedly there’s little new in the archetypes offered up as characters – bad-guy businessman, expert marksman, horny youngsters – but that doesn’t distract from the huge amount of fun to be had.
Director Steve Barker previously offered up a fresh and engaging spin on the zombie movie before, kick-starting the Nazi-zombie franchise Outpost in 2008. Where Outpost was about establishing a claustrophobic eerie tone The ReZort is about action, fast pacing and delivering edge-of-the-seat thrills, all of which it does. As with Romero’s earlier zombie flicks there’s a nod towards the current state of our society (the migrant crisis) and what it does with it comes as a huge surprise and an added gut punch that lifts this head and shoulders above the ample competition.
