DIRECTORS: BILL THOMAS, CHRISTOPHER PUTTOCK / SCREENPLAY: BILL THOMAS, HUW SAMUEL / STARRING: DAZ BLACK, HUW SAMUEL, SOPHIE-LOUISE CRAIG, HARVEY QUINN / RELEASE DATE: JUNE 20TH
The movie industry has adjusted to the global pandemic in many different ways, from changes in distribution model to changes in the very way films are put together. This necessary shift in focus has led to many indie filmmakers embracing the challenge of making a feature during lockdown. One such example is Lockdown Kings, a dystopian near-future comedy set in an England that has been in quarantine for many years.
Our main characters are Mitch (YouTuber Daz Black) and Bash (Huw Samuel), two ageing slackers who have been doing everything they can to stop themselves from going mad with boredom. Society has been restructured by the Emergency Council and everyone now lives in lockdown. Emergency Council monitoring controls the locks on their doors and even the windows are electrified; they really mean it when they say stay at home. Rather than doing anything resembling work or exercise, our heroes mostly play video games.
Of course, given that they live in a world where everything is closely monitored, their grifting will only get them so far. As the realities of a plague-infested world begin to catch up with them, the two friends find themselves way out of their depth, discovering secrets that could change everything. And, of course, all of this happens when they are sitting in their front rooms in front of a computer.
One of the remarkable things about this movie is how much an action-style thriller relies on good dialogue. Mitch and Bash have an easy going friendship and the banter between the two really makes this movie stand out. Though Lockdown Kings sometimes feels like a mix of comedy shorts, improvised chats, and the odd sci-fi cliché, the blend of these things makes it something more than that. The acting is appropriately over the top, the comedy is spot-on, and special effects are efficient and cleverly done.
Director Bill Thomas is perhaps best known to STARBURST readers for his micro-budget flintlock fantasy zombie flick Fallen Soldiers. That movie did an awful lot with very little, and Lockdown Kings pulls off the same sort of trick, focusing heavily on dialogue rather than action. The premise of this film was never going to win points for originality; moviemakers have been remixing The Machine Stops for decades now, but Lockdown Kings makes a plague-fuelled dystopian near-future something we can laugh at, and that’s an incredible feat in this day and age.
The full movie will be released onto the Daz Games YouTube channel from June 20th.
