Review by Ben Bussey
We’ve all seen our share of nightmarish visions of a post-apocalyptic future in which the world is overrun by zombies. How about a post-apocalyptic, zombie-filled period piece? That is the fairly promising hook for Exit Humanity, the new film from writer/director John Geddes. In the alternate timeline he cooks up for us, the end of the American Civil War gave way to a whole new conflict with the walking dead. Caught on the front lines is Edward Young (Mark Gibson), a former soldier whose family promptly perishes in the zombie plague. With nothing left to lose, Young heads out with the ashes of his child, intent on leaving them at a place he had promised to take the boy during his life. Of course, it should come as little surprise that Young will encounter some substantial obstacles along the way; some human, some not so much.
No, it’s not the first period zombie film of its kind; for one there was 2010’s The Dead and the Damned, released to Region 2 last year as Cowboys and Zombies (though we needn’t dwell on that one). Still, there was definitely the chance of something special here with Exit Humanity. John Geddes and his team have put together a good-looking film with a strong cast (including narration from Brian Cox, doing his best southern gentleman drawl) all on a fairly low budget. Sad to say, Exit Humanity doesn’t come close to living up to its potential, and despite the period setting there’s very little to make it stand apart in the deluge of zombie and/or survivalist horror movies of recent years.
To the film’s credit, it has a couple of seasoned genre veterans taking their most interesting roles for some time. Bill Moseley, who’s had a frankly rotten run in recent years (I’ll spare him the indignity of naming and shaming his turkeys), gets a plum role as a Confederate general who sees the outbreak as an opportunity to seize control of the land. Yep, like Day of the Dead and 28 Days Later before it, the true villains are not the dead/infected but power-hungry military men. Moseley doesn’t rewrite the rule book for post-apocalyptic megalomania, and perhaps sensibly he doesn’t reach Joe Pilato levels of histrionics, but he makes for a compelling big bad guy, giving his best performance for some time and probably the best in the film. Then we have Dee Wallace as a mysterious hermit (is there a feminised term for that one? Hermitress? Hermitrix?) However, she’s not given much more to do than act a bit enigmatic, and the character comes off a bit by-the-numbers.
Of course, neither of these old hands takes the lead here. That responsibility goes to newcomer Mark Gibson (also in the upcoming Monster Brawl). As the bereaved, taciturn Edward Young, his principle duty is to look moody and sport an impressive beard. While he’s certainly a leading man of some potential, his efforts here wind up falling a little flat. The fault is not so much with his performance as with the overall vision of writer/director Geddes. Playing things as straight as can be, Geddes’ intent would seem to be an amalgamation of old school slow-burn western and contemporary über-bleak horror. Subsequently, it’s all very slow and humourless, taking itself just a bit too seriously for my liking. Handling big themes seriously need not necessitate being utterly devoid of levity, and I really feel Exit Humanity would have benefited from being just a smidgen more light-hearted, with a bit more action. Still, it’s not 100% doom and gloom; the zombie scenes, though few and far between, are well realised, and there’s even room found for a spot of good old-fashioned gun-fighting, which should raise a smile.
Points to John Geddes for ambition and grit; Exit Humanity is a laudable effort even if it shoots a bit wide of the target. Nonetheless, he may well be a filmmaker to keep an eye on in the future.
Exit Humanity hits Region 1 DVD and VOD on June 19th from Bloody Disgusting Selects, and Region 2 DVD on 2nd July from Metrodome.