Director: Chee Keong Cheung
Writers: Chee Keong Cheung, Steve Horvath, Mark Strange
Stars: Oris Erhuero, Carlos Gallardo, Mark Strange
Large swathes of England have been hit by a virus which turns sufferers into homicidal, cannibalistic maniacs and is transmitted through biting. Military head honcho Major General Charles Smith determines that the only course of action is to send a crack military unit into one of the most affected areas in order to retrieve a scientist, Dr. Julian Raynes, who was somehow involved in its original gestation. Entrusted with the mission are Captain Marcus Stanton and his ragbag team, but they find matters more difficult than even they expected…
Redcon-1 has all the hallmarks of being a stuntman’s vanity project: the cast is almost entirely made up by stuntmen; it features numerous fight sequences in lieu of a plot; and it goes on way, way too long (nearly two hours – even the best of horror films doesn’t deserve a running time that length!) You can see what the makers were trying to do: essentially to mix the crunching action of The Raid with the zombie thrills of The Walking Dead, but unfortunately they don’t have the skill or the means to pull it off. As a result it becomes a silly mess, with one aimless plot twist thrown in after another to extend the running time or drive another punch up, none of which make any kind of sense even within the nonsensical logic of the world in which it is set.
The key mover behind the film is Mark Strange, a martial arts expert and choreographer who has worked on the likes of The Medalllion and Red 2. As co-writer, producer and star it can be counted as something of a vanity project, and all kudos to him for having the drive to get it all made. It’s certainly not lacking in ambition, with the prodigious cast and crew credits revealing the fact that it was always intended to be something of a no-budget epic. This, unfortunately, works against it: it might have worked better if shorn of the final half hour, where things get increasingly ludicrous following a Where Eagles Dare inspired plot-twist. Director Chee Keong Cheung, who had previously worked with Strange on similarly no-budget action films Underground (2007) and Bodyguard: A New Beginning (2008), does a decent job with the fight scenes but also has to be held responsible for his lack of control over the editing and lackadaisical pacing; there’s also far too much use of poverty-row CGI, with computer-game style blood splats all over the place.
Despite its many faults, however – which also include variable performances, a lunatic script, some laughable effects – it’s far from the worst of its type. It’s at least marginally entertaining in stretches and the aforementioned twist is at least unexpected. There are also some strangely poignant moments: the bitten Katarina Leigh Waters and her lover Michael Sheehan opting to stay behind, dressing up in leisure ware and waiting for infection to take hold; the apparently crazed but in fact sympathetic ex-con Ivan Gavric (played by Douglas Russell, a distinctive looking veteran actor previously seen in Valhalla Rising and A Lonely Place to Die). In some ways it reminded me of those demented films made by self-proclaimed Mancunian action hero Cliff Twemlow in the early 1980s, but better made and more enjoyable.
Rating: 4/10
