State of Emergency

State of Emergency

Starring Jay Hayden, Tori White, Scott Lilly, Kathryn Todd Norman

Directed by Turner Clay

An unexplained event has occurred in a small town, causing some people to mutate into ravenous cannibalistic mindless killers.  After witnessing the death of his girlfriend, Jim (Jay Hayden) bunkers down in an abandoned barn, until he hears word of other survivors being holed up in a warehouse.  He flees the barn and unites with married couple Scott (Scott Lilly) and Julie (Kathryn Todd Norman), and mysterious Ix (Tori White). 

Together the four band together to survive until the government rescues them, but a series of unfortunate events makes survival extremely difficult, as the mindless mutated people advance on the warehouse, and the four must work together in order to survive.

Bearing the brunt of the film on his shoulders, Jay Hayden gives a terrific performance as Jim, who is a common man forced to use all his intellect to survive.  He's not a superhuman superhero or a vain, conceited archetype, but rather an incredibly flawed person suffering the loss of the love of his life, surrounded in a new world where he has to struggle just to survive the day.

What I really appreciated about this very low-budget horror zombie movie is that it really takes the time to focus on the characters and to give them a story, and none of them have that typical zombie generic character of either the over-bloated know-everything person or the always paranoid person who just annoys everyone.  All four main characters are really likeable and draw you into their plight, and you truly hope it all ends up for the best for them.

A little slower than most horror films of this subgenre, but a very good story makes up for it.

My Rating: B+