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Overall Rating : 7.5/10
Directed By : Turner Van Ryn
Pisha Warden
Scott Levy (Adventures of Johnny Tao)
Kurt Yaeger
Tony Grat
Supplied By : Producer - Scott Levy
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : March. 2, 2010
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| PLOT Lt. Sandy Fletcher leads her squad of beat up "Hell Patrollers" across a post-zombalyptic wasteland, to the safe city of San Francisco after a failed scrounging mission in Modesto, California. Her squad finds refuge in an abandoned farmhouse and they fortify the grounds for a possible attack. Lt. Fletcher, Sgt. Mark Daniels, Cpl. Chopper, Pvt. Mcwatt and Maj. Karl Brickhaus must fight their way through the unending wave of the undead to get home. | ||||
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| THE REVIEW In the independent short film, THE HELL PATROL, it's the year 2018 and our world was once thriving has been wiped clean by a zombie virus. No place is safe in this post apocalyptic world, except for the city of San Francisco California. San Fransisco has been basically quarantined from the rest of the population as a means to stay safe, along with a group of volunteers. These volunteers employ spacial soldiers to trek the infected areas in search for supplies, these scrounges are considered being on "Hell Patrol". The film centers around such a group of "Hell Patrolers lead by Lt. Sandi Fletcher. The squad who includes; Sgt. Mark Daniels, Cpl. Chopper, Pvt. Mcwatt and Maj. Karl Brickhaus are coming off of a mission deemed a failure, after the loss of their commander. With nothing left to accomplish in this mission, the crew take refuge in an abandoned farmhouse that theu manage to come across alonf the way - it is here that they intend to rest, prior to making their attempt to return to the safe city. But just as they believe that their journey back would be a safe and peaceful one, they find themselves outnumbered by a previously undetected hord of the undead. As you all know, the subject of zombies in film, is one of the most overly-used subjects that there happens to be in any genre, in Horror, it's the most common. We have seen the subject imagined in just about every way possible, utilizing various budgets in terms of amount spent. These is certainly one subject that I have grown tired of, an while their is an abundance of die hard zombie fans out there, I do not consider myself one of them. So in order to get me to truly enjoy a zombie flick, the film better have some originality or, at least something about it that stands out. What's presented here in this 30 minute short, in my opinion is just that, it's a unique take on the zombie plagued, post apocalyptic world that has been done many times over. In the film, we follow a squad that knows that they have lost their war. Armed with weapons and courage, squads such as this are normally portrayed as having confidence, but this time around we see a vulnerable squad, one that has an amount of uncertainty. Each member of the beaten team have their own personality, and individual problem in which they are dealing with, but alas they are bravely commanded by a refreshingly strong female character in Sandi Fletcher(portrayed by Pisha Warden), despite the film's short run time, these characters are written in a way in which we know enough to invest our interest in them. Besides the fairly solid characters within the limited range, something else I found myself impressed with were the film's production values. At this time, I am not quite sure of the exact budget, but I do know that it was relatively low and that the crew had a limited shooting schedule, but all of this aside the film looks really impressive. The film takes on a sort of hand held gritty style and it's constant movement gives off that feeling of being right in the middle of the action as a viewer, the cinematography really does it's part to boost the film up a notch overall. As with any short film, there are compromises to be made in all aspects and to deliver great characters that will leave great impressions within the time aloud, the actors in the film almost have to be perfect, i'd say. Well, when it comes to THE HELL PATROL, this is certainly not a probably as the roles of the cast are superbly performed by all. Pisha Warden(Sandi Fletcher) and Scott Levy(Mark Daniels), the shorts two principal stars lead the way with strong performances respectively, but overall the entire cast work very well collectively making this film all the more an enjoyable experience. THE HELL PATROL as it is, is a great film, but of course, at only 30 minutes in length and that it ends with quite the "bang", it actually leaves you just wishing that the film was a feature length. But with this said, it looks as if that feature length film that I speak and hope for may not be out of the question just yet because this short version of THE HELL PATROL is supposedly only the catalyst of with is to become a future full-fledged zombie flick. |
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| GORE
METER 5/10 We have flesh wounds, gunshot wounds to the body, and head. There are also multiple limbs being ripped apart from bodies, that are thrown in for good measure. For the budget, I again have to give credit where it's due. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 4/10 In the score department, there is truly nothing that stands out to me, as it is your typical action/adventure/military stuff, but nonetheless, it's not too bad. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM A while back, after what I understand was a long wait, the producers released onto the web, a short teaser trailer for this film. Well after seeing the full 30 minute film, I can say that it is almost a teaser in itself, of course only longer, as I know that if the planned feature is ever released upon us, it could only be better. But for now, we have this great little zombie morsel of a film that plays out much like a mini zombie epic, especially during one particular zombie attack in the end. I'll be honest, when I went into this short, I didn't expect much, as most shorts struggle to keep a plausible story contained within it's limits, but I have to say that THE HELL PATROL has to be one of the best short films that i've seen in quite some time. If you should ever happen to get a chance to see this, and you like zombie films, than be sure to give this short film a try! | ||||
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