CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: RODNEY LUIS AQUINO / SCREENPLAY: KRAIG SWISHER / STARRING: JOSEPH GATT, MICHAEL CAMPTON, TOM PROCTOR / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Finding Eden is a low-budget post-apocalyptic survival thriller, which if we are being honest, watches like an exceptionally chill and relaxed episode of The Walking Dead, the plot being a gentler sort of apocalypse. The world has come to an end thanks to a shift in the Earth’s rotation, and it seems that our hero and his family have been on a lovely holiday as the news that the world as we know it is over comes over the radio. Cue some stock footage and a voiceover explaining how everything has gone wrong. Mankind’s selfishness in the face of massive environmental chaos has meant that society has collapsed and it’s all about the roaming gangs of murderers and cannibals. Finding Eden first hit festivals in 2017 and it’s interesting how this sort of storyline seems sort of quaint now.
We cut back to the hero of the piece, a family man called Adam, who’s seemingly lost his family. He’s on their trail, though, as it appears that they’ve been taken by a gang who leave bloody hand marks as a calling card. Adam is armed only with a bow and arrow for reasons that are never explained, but it’s a movie-style bow, so of course, it’s incredibly accurate and deadly.
Though Finding Eden is post-apocalyptic survival movie, it’s a very gentle one. It helps that the backdrop to it all appears to be a mostly sunny part of a forest somewhere in the USA, with the odd abandoned factory for spice. The remote location and sparse action makes for more of a film about walking than anything else, though the few bloody scenes are very well paced.
Finding Eden is a decent low-budget movie; the cast are well chosen, Jason Sutton makes for a convincing ‘dad but an action hero’-style character and really sells his inner pain throughout. Tom Proctor, however, steals the show as the villainous Donner. Like many small productions, it would be interesting to see what director Rodney Luis Aquino could do with a budget and a script that isn’t as basic as this one.
