Patient Zero

THAT WAS HIS WIFE!
The film opens with a hunt and kill segment that is foreboding of events. Dr. Jonathan Wright (Brandon Slagle) is engaged to Dr. Jenna Barnes (Amanda Phillips). They both work at GEM, a company in a small town that genetically modifies agricultural, "saving the planet one ear of corn at a time." At least that is what everyone believes, except for people at Jonathan's level. They are developing biological weapons, something that could be described as a "berserker virus."

There are several things I noticed that was a cause for pause. Why do employees wear Tyvex clothing to protect them from infection, then go eat lunch in the same clothes? Why does the military hunt down infected people without any protective gear? And when people are infected and feel they must kill each other, yet they don't kill other infected people. Why is that?

The film starts out slow to build character, or to let us know Jonathan doesn't have any. Amanda takes showers, but is camera shy...

What is it that drives with our fascination with Zombies?
I will never forget, as a small child, my first viewing of George Romero's classic "Night of the Living Dead." Even though this genre'-launching, micro-budgeted feature was shot in Black and White (and viewed in our home on a tiny Zenith television screen), the impact was undeniable. All of my siblings and friends were terrified to the point of vocal screams, and even at this young age, I knew that I was witnessing the birth of something new in cinema. Flash Forward 30+ years to now, and we are still mesmerized with "The Walking Dead" and anything zombie related. Brian Jayne's newest thriller, "PATIENT ZERO", takes a stab at a genesis theory (one that has been suggested before in many incarnations). But still, the first zombie -- and the rampant spread of "Zombieness" -- is a ripe formula for simple cinema pleasure. This is not the best zombie movie of the year, not even the best from Brian Jaynes. But for all of those out there, like me, who find the terror of walking dead...

Nope-Nada-Zip
Not a zombie film, not even a 28 days later decent rip-off. From the Humans VS Zombies film, which I thought was okay -- comes one that just has already been done to death and I ended up hitting the scan forward button - a lot. I did not hate the film and they did a good job of locations and acting .... but don't package it like a zombie film and then not deliver. Just been there and did that to the Nth degree and glad I got this from the $5 bin at WaL-Mart because I cannot see myself popping it into re-watch it.

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