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Film: It Stains the Sands Red
Year: 2016
Director: Colin Minihan
Writer: Colin Minihan and Stuart Ortiz
Starring: Brittany Allen, Juan Riedinger and Merwin Mondesir
Review:
This film starts showing us Las Vegas. There is an alarm going off. We then see a car fleeing from it. The driver is Merwin Mondesir. His passenger is his girlfriend, Brittany Allen. Allen is quite needy. She asks to have some more cocaine and is drinking. Mondesir tells her to calm down on all of it. He has to pull over, because she thinks she is going to be sick. When he does this, he gets stuck in the sand on the shoulder.
Mondesir tries to call his friend they are supposed to be meeting up with. He tries to find a way to get his car free. Allen notices a guy walking toward them. He is Juan Riedinger. She is calling to him and Mondesir tells her to stop. It turns out he is a zombie. Mondesir gets a gun and shoots it. He ends up getting it in the chest and it falls down. He thinks he has killed it. The two start to kiss in the road and we see the zombie get back up. The two flee to the car and Mondesir loses his phone on the ground.
It gets dark out and the zombie stays at the car window. It finally walks away and they get out of the car. They find the phone, but then the zombie comes up behind Mondesir. It eats him while Allen flees back to the car. She watches as it does. He then packs up things in the car including water, cigarettes and the rest of the cocaine. She flees into the desert. The problem is that Riedinger is following her.
It is hot out and she has limited time. She makes a call to the same guy Mondesir did, telling the guy on the phone that they will be there and to wait. He tells her to hurry up. As she is continuing on, we see her get bug eyed. She drops to her knees and searches her purse. She pulls out what she is looking for, a tampon. She continues on with the zombie following her. She builds a fire, but she is attacked by it during the night. She doesn’t get bit. She does climb on to a rock to sleep. We get images of a child and her doing cocaine.
When she wakes up, the zombie is still there. She is trying to find a way to get down. She then decides to remove her tampon and throw it. The zombie follows after it, biting it like its flesh. She gets down and starts her journey once more, the zombie following behind.
She has to find a way to rest without the creature catching her all the while trying to make it to the airfield before the guys leave. Allen does find an abandoned house, a couple of guys in a truck, a sandstorm and some soldiers. Every night when she goes to sleep we learn more and more about her and her life before this happened.
Can she survive this? Or will the zombie finally catch her? Can she survive the other things that she encounters along the way?
I have heard about this film from a horror podcast that did a review on it. I thought it sounded interesting so I decided to check it out while checking out 2017 releases. I have to say that I really like the concept. A film like this is good in that we really have two characters for most of the film. Allen needs to keep moving but she also has to rest. The zombie following her doesn’t. This is a scary thing to have to deal with. I do like also that there plight forces her to reflect on her life and the decisions that she made. She realizes how much of a bad human being she has been and deal with it. Much like most zombie films, there are humans that she has to deal with. I didn’t mind that part, but it isn’t really anything original. I also didn’t like how far they took Allen’s relationship with the zombie. It became a little bit too much in my opinion. It does have some interesting concepts though like dealing with her menstruation. The ending of the film was decent, but I wasn’t a huge fan.
The acting of the film left something to be desired across the board. This film is tough because it is really just two characters, but one of the characters doesn’t talk. Allen isn’t strong of an actress for this type of film. I thought she was decent, I will give her that. Riedinger though killed it as the zombie. I actually was quite impressed with his portrayal. I didn’t like that he didn’t try biting Allen a couple of times later in the film, because that doesn’t come off as realistic to me. I did mind the two guys she runs into the desert or the two soldiers either. The rest of the cast was pretty bland to me as well.
I will say that effects in this film were pretty good. From everything I recall, it was all done practically. There was a scene that if they’d showed more could have really helped my rating, but the film decided to cut away. I don’t hold it against the film too much; just something I felt I needed to point out. The editing of the film had its issues as well. I never felt tension until the very end. That wasn’t even done that great either unfortunately. I did think the score was good. It helped set the mood of the scenes at times.
Now with that said, this film definitely has an interesting concept. I like what they tried, but I just feel they needed a stronger actress to pull it off. The comedy was fun during Allen and the zombie’s interactions. It does explore some ideas; it also recycles some troupes from other films in this genre. The acting wasn’t strong enough for a film like this. The effects were done practically and I think they were good. The editing of the film had its issues due to not building enough tension. The score was good at times as well. I feel this film is slightly above average. If you like zombie films, I’d give this shot. It’s not the best, but I did enjoy it still
My Rating: 6 out of 10