When a deadly virus is unleashed upon Dana’s 30th birthday party, her estranged father must prevent this epidemic from spreading any further and keep his daughter safe at all costs.
Horror as a genre is full of endless potential, but when a director who has little to no experience or idea of how to tap into the hidden nuances of the wonderful world of horror, you are presented with a motion picture like Epidemic. Coming in at a measly 71 minutes long, this confusing and bewildering story is unfortunately a waste of everyone’s time.
The story starts off promisingly enough, with our protagonist Dana (Amanda K. Morales) planning her 30th birthday celebrations which will involve hanging out with friends and attempting to rekindle her relationship with her estranged father. This starting point provides an interesting dynamic that could’ve been explored at a much deeper level if only the screenwriter had any idea of how to follow up on a promising idea. And then there’s the fact that Dana’s friends Mandi and Troy unwittingly bring a deadly virus along with them to the party… Although, when hearing the word “party”, one might imagine a horde of drunk revellers, whereas we are instead presented with our two hosts Dana and Mike, the aforementioned Mandi and Troy, and their awkward friend James. This is turn sucks any dormant threat that could be bestowed upon the audience due to the lack of people that this virus could infect.
Once things finally start happen, the story and pacing of the film lose their way entirely. The virus is never really explained and we as an audience are left scratching our heads trying to figure out exactly what it is, why it causes strange hallucinations, and why Dana’s alcoholic father Rufus (Andrew Hunsicker) makes the decisions that he does. That and also the fact that nothing is remotely scary as most of the scenes take place in blinding daylight, once again detracting the viewer from the potentially tense nature of the events transpiring on screen.
One positive note is that the makeup effects for the zombie-esque infected are rather commendable for a project that clearly had a shoestring budget and has a straight-to-TV SYFY channel vibe. However, that does not save Epidemic from being a confusing, careless and tedious film that makes little to no sense and conclusively a waste of time.
EPIDEMIC / CERT: UNRATED / DIRECTOR: STEPHEN MICHAEL GIGLIO / SCREENPLAY: STEPHEN MICHAEL GIGLIO, ADAM ROMANCHIK / STARRING: AMANDA K. MORALES, MIKE SUTTON, GINA DESTRA / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
