'State of Emergency' (2011)

I've been having a bit of trouble getting to sleep recently and have found myself watching films on Youtube in an attempt to wait out the insomnia. Looking back at what I have just written, this doesn't seem like a clever move at all. Oh well, back to the ol' insomnia drawing board…

But yeah, I've been watching films and one of those was 'State of Emergency'. I'm still slowly going off zombie fiction but I can't resist a zombie film, mostly because of the suspense and gore. 'State of Emergency' follows similar 'zombie apocalypse' themes; a man attempts to survive in the middle of an outbreak (toxins accidentally released from a chemical facility) and finds shelter with a dysfunctional group of survivors. It's just a shame that it doesn't follow those themes particularly well…

It's often occurred to me that a zombie apocalypse could become pretty boring once you've secured your shelter and are waiting to see what happens next. Nothing can get in but you can't get out either and if you don't have some entertainment to hand then you're pretty much screwed really. In 'State of Emergency', the survivors hole up in an empty warehouse where the only thing to do, once the offices have been searched, is to sleep and eat. There are a couple of scary moments, in a '28 Days Later' kind of way but with far fewer infected, but the rest of the film really shows you how tedious a zombie outbreak can be (and not in a good way either…) And why didn't they notice the manhole, in the warehouse, until it was too late? They checked everything but the floor… Ooh that made me cross...

None of this is helped by a cast that seem to exist just to fill in a 'cast shaped gap' in the film. You could make an argument that they are all in shock but my money is on poor direction/lack of acting ability. It's painful to watch them interact as they all seem to be looking for cues that the other actors don't supply. 'State of Emergency' is beautifully shot (and the flashback sequences worked very well) but I was so glad to see the end credits roll up. An apathetic film that seems to rely on inducing that same feeling of apathy in its viewers so they don't switch off.