Virus: 32

 

Virus: 32

Starring Paula Silva, Daniel Hendler

Directed by Gustavo Hernandez

Zombie movies are a dime a dozen these days, mostly due to the rapid success of George A. Romero's zombie trilogy that re-vitalized the zombie subgenre, along with hit television series like "The Walking Dead," and no matter how "dead" the subgenre is (get it?), I still absolutely love it for some odd reason. Maybe it's because it's the one form of apocalypse I think I would do well in (as long as the zombies are slower shufflers like "The Walking Dead"), but I can't get enough of these undead brain-searchers, no matter how terrible some of their iterations are. While there's the standouts - "Shaun of the Dead," "Night of the Living Dead," "Dawn of the Dead," "Zombieland," "World War Z" - there's other, more independent films like "[Rec]" that don't have the bigger budgets to produce a multi-million dollar franchise, but still adequately serve as decent zombie films that might not necessarily be remembered. "Virus: 32" is one such film - a smaller budgeted horror film that's reminiscent of other zombie movies, but with some unique twists that makes it feel more akin to "28 Days Later" - in which case I'd be screwed if this was real life.

Iris (Paula Silva) is a dead-beat mother who would rather party and drink than care for her eight-year-old daughter Tata that she shares custody with alongside her ex Javi, but there's deeper emotional trauma she faced that made her this way - most notably the accidental death of her young son that she feels responsible for. While she has to watch Tata, she takes her to her place of work: a security guard for an abandoned YMCA-style athletics club, she leaves her alone as she performs her nightly duties, unaware of the carnage taking place outside. Groups of people are becoming infected and become ravenous hunters, striking down anyone in their path with bloodthirty vengeance - before retreating to a state of stasis for 32 seconds. When Iris discovers what's happening, she has to search the labyrinth of the club to find her daughter, as well as assist fellow survivor Luis (Daniel Hendler) in helping his wife (who's also infected) give birth. Learning that these disease-ridden people go dormant for 32 seconds after an attack, Iris attempts to rescue everyone and learn to overcome her past insecurities to get them all out alive.

While not technically a zombie movie, "Virus: 32" falls into that subgenre since it parallels a lot with the zombie subgenre: both involve brainless hordes of unstoppable people stricken with a sickness who set out to hurt those not infected, but in this case it's not the undead coming back to life to munch on brains, but rather people who've befallen a mysterious illness that turns them into marathon-sprinting merciless killers - and in a sense that's far more frightening than zombies. For one, they have intelligence, so you can't easily outsmart them. Second, they're fast - like really, really fast, and for a fat man like myself I know I'd be dead meat in seconds. It's these reasons that "Virus: 32" is closer associated with "28 Days Later" than "Night of the Living Dead."

Despite the smaller budget and lack of major cast of characters, director and co-writer Gustavo Hernandez utilizes his menial supplies to give a decent cheap-jump-scare-free film, even if it sort of derails near the end. The film starts off strong with the introduction of characters in a seemingly-one-take sweep through an apartment complex finally moving to a drone-style fly-by over the city as our unbeknownst heroes make their way to work while the world dissolves around them. Then the film really takes off in the one setting it offers, and it's an amazing set piece for such an event. An abandoned athletics' club is the perfect setting for a cat-and-mouse game of pseudo-zombies and those still living, consisting of dimly lit corridors, gymnasiums with amazing acoustics, and Olympic-sized swimming pools that are all used to their utmost to deliver the continual sense of dread, tension, and terror. On this end, the film excels by using the smaller budget to their advantage.

The performances as well are on-point, especially Paula Silva's Iris, who undergoes her own Hero's Journey in a scant 90-minute film. She starts off the film as a free-spirited woman who seemingly doesn't have a care in the world, except for the fact that she's masking the continual pain she harbors inside for feeling it's her fault that her young son died. At first she's not wholly likable, but just enough to make her a bit endearing, but as the film progresses and she has to search not just for her daughter, but also help an infected woman give birth, she undergoes a transformation that allows her past pain to come to the surface and turn her into a hardened, fearless warrior. Using her street smarts, she discovers that these infected people rest for 32 seconds after attacking, and uses that to her advantage to make it out alive.

Where the film does falter is in its final acts, as it sometimes falls into the generic trappings of other zombie horror films. Yes, you have 32 seconds to make it through a horde, so why would you tiptoe and slowly walk past them? I'd be trying to run as fast as I could knowing that they're basically mannequins for that scant amount of time, yet there's one particular scene where she's trying to traverse a small corridor teeming with the infected, and it's like she's window-shopping for the outfits they're wearing. It seems, overall, that the film doesn't attempt to achieve the success of memorable zombie-like films, but instead serve as one of those indie-underground films that aren't quickly remembered, but when it's mentioned, you remember it all of a sudden.

The Score: B+