Arriving on a wave of opportunistic hype and craven journalism, based on the spurious claim that it cost just £45 to make, Marc Price’s ‘first zombie film from a zombie’s point-of-view’ has much to live up to. Price admits that the throwaway micro-budget line was designed to lower the expectations of the film’s target audience – hardcore horror fans. Mainstream audiences will probably be less forgiving of his home movie’s technical and aesthetic deficiencies.
Like its eponymous protagonist, ‘Colin’ shambles fitfully from one scene to the next, without ever achieving any momentum or sense of direction. Attacked and bitten by a zombie, young Londoner Colin (Alastair Kirton) slowly degenerates into a flesh-eater himself, shuffling about the streets in search of squidgy bits on which to chow down. Later, captured by his sister and her husband, Colin is first strung up and shown familiar photos, then bundled into a sack and taken to his mother’s house. In neither case is there even a flicker of human consciousness. Since things tend to happen to the brain-dead Colin, or merely around him, his passive protagonist cannot drive forward what little story there is. Constantly shifting perspectives undermine Price’s claim that the action is seen exclusively from Colin’s point of view, while most of the larger-scale scenes seem designed to give the volunteer extras something to do.
‘Colin’ is promising enough for us to hope that Price’s next project will realise his nascent potential. Meanwhile, this overlong, non-frightening debut features ugly digital images that are either over-saturated or absurdly badly lit, and its attempts at leavening humour all fall flat.