Extinction (2015)

Dir: Miguel Angel Vivas

A convoy of school buses packed with civilians and soldiers heads towards a military checkpoint in the town of Harmony. Concerned that the lead school bus has stopped short of the base, the second bus stops and the soldiers exit to investigate. It's then that the viewer learns why the faces of the occupants look scared. The civilians are being taken to the military base as they are the few remaining uninfected. A virus, spread by bites, has humanity teetering on the edge of destruction. Yes, this is a zombie apocalypse. The soldiers are attacked by the fast moving zombies and the flesh hungry infected turn their sights to the warm bodies on the bus. On the bus are Patrick (Matthew Fox LOST), Jack (Jeffrey Donovan BURN NOTICE) and the pregnant Emma (Valeria Vereau). Together they fight the zombies while escaping the bus buffet in search of safety.

Nine years later Patrick and Jack live next door to one another in secured compounds on the outskirts of Harmony. Jack raises his daughter Lu (Quinn McColgan), teaches her to read and write and is overly protective of her. Patrick hunts for food during day light hours and at night drinks to excess while broadcasting over the air waves in hope some one is out there and will hear him.

Neither one talks to each other.

Something in the past created a rift between the two men. A rift that has widened over the years so much that Jack reprimands Lu if she dares talk to her Uncle Patrick. Their compounds have kept them safe from the zombie horde over the years but the lack of co-operation between the two is starting to take a toll on both men.

This Spanish-Hungarian co-production helmed by Miguel Angel Vivas (KIDNAPPED) is a different take on the usual zombie film. Much of the nearly two hour running time focuses on the every day existence of the small group of survivors and how the adults, Patrick and Jack, continue that existence and the role that Jack, as father, must play to the growing Lu who has no recollection of zombies. Fox shines as a tormented man driven to the bottle, Donovan is solid as the protective father and McColgan expresses well the innocence of youth.

The good news is that the world ended AFTER Guillermo made the film

Book-ending all that drama and family angst are two action set pieces with plenty of blood, gore and zombie mayhem to satiate my thirst. But it is the characters and their stories that raises this film above the others in the zombie genre that I've complained about in the past.

*** out of ****


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