Strain 100 |
USA • 2017 • 84m •
  • Directed by: Hassan Hussein. • Starring: Jemma Dallender, Augie Duke, Matt Carriker, Sterling Jones, Sheri Beth Dusek, Nikki Fioretti, Haley Rivard, Ingrid Mortimer, Tori Nonaka, Daniel Jeffries, Quentin Brown, Jennifer Jelsema, Keyna Reynolds. • Music by: Elia Cmiral.   After surviving a terrifying car crash, a young woman discovers that aggressive, flesh-eating zombies have overtaken the entire area. She must figure out what is happening and why in hopes of escaping her horrifying circumstances.
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Review:
Sadly this movie did not live up to the hype and expectations, which surrounded this movie from following Matt's part in the film via YouTube. The audio quality, design, and production value are far below what you would come to expect, even for a budget film. In certain scenes, the dialogue is out of sync with the actor's lips (lip-syncing almost like a badly dubbed none English movie). The worst of which is in the dinner, when the owner has some crap cringey lines and delivers them in just the same crap and cringey way, and to make it worse, his lines are out of sync with his lips. Car scenes (when in motion with inside shots) are missing atmospheric sound effects with open windows. Silent dead air inside the car, except for a few dialogues, very basic 101 rules are missing. The videography is all over the place, with camera cuts not being consistent, bad angles, and strange lighting placement.
The script is amateurish (that's being kind). It's borderline boring, which you do not expect from an American action horror (even bad action horror movies give a little fear factor or excitement). A lot of the dialogue is bloated with filler rather than contextual or plot-based writing. As for the plot, or lack thereof? Honestly, I don't think there is one, and if there is a plot, I missed it. To say a virus went "bad" and turned everyone into flesh-eating zombies just doesn't cut the mustard with me as far a plot goes. I truly believe this movie is based on yet another zombie "shoot 'em up" (at best, it's almost like a parody zombie film, but without the comedic effect). However, the first 5 minutes were positive and possibly the best of the whole movie, but it sadly takes a steep downward spiral from then on. The first 5 minutes do have a tense thriller like feel, posing the right questions. In those opening 5 minutes, I was getting myself ready for a unique indie low budget movie on a virus type global pandemic (not that we need any more of that at this current time). I even gave it a positive eyebrow gesture as if to say: "ok, you have my attention." The imagery, the sounds, and the music were good. The edgy, real-world snap news footage of riots, martial law, society breaking down, and vaccines gave a sense of seriousness to the situation, and even the brief news reporter scene gave me high hopes for what's to come. Then the movie seemed to switch to something completely different, almost like I had switched over TV channels. The remainder of the film was woeful in comparison to those first 5 minutes, a real shame.
The actor's performances are varied, rating from very bad to dull to adequate. All of the none core characters are forgettable, annoying, boring, or inconsequential. The main characters do not fair much better. The "zombie" extras seem to have the greater of the performances. Their roles far outreach the actual casting and are more consistent. (Which sets the tone for the rest of the movie). The only character worth paying any attention to is Jesse, played by Jemma Dallenderemma seems to have the most acting experience, delivers what lines she has relatively well, bearing in mind how bad the writing is. Two other characters worth mentioning are Emma, played by Alexis Boozer Sterling, and Brandon, played by Robert Forte Shannon III. Both play into their roles well, Emma a waitress, who is the first none zombie Jesse comes into contact with after Jesse, fights off a zombie attacker inside Emma's house. Who turns out to be Emma's brother-in-law. They decide to work together and make their way to the diner where Emma works. Which is where they meet Brandon. Who appears to speak his mind and tells the truth, whether or people want to hear it. Brandon joins Jesse, Emma, and two others from the diner, as they head off to Atlanta to find Jesse's mum, who works for the CDC. Again the writing is pretty bad, but they make the most of what lines they have.
There was a moment towards the end, which I believe was one of the most unnecessary, cringey, and cheap directions the movie has, and it bears no relevance to whatever the plot is. I find it obscene and believe readers need to be informed further. I also was wondering why the movie company wanted this in the movie at all. During a shooting zombie scene towards the end, a 71-year-old real-world YouTuber called Greg Kinman, better known as Hickok45, "saves" Jesse and a little girl. He proceeds to shoot zombies, and after each kill, he says things relating to his actual YouTube channel (like a form of promotion to his channel). One of his many creepy lines is: "I hope none of those people were our subscribers." After all the zombies are dead, he goes to Jesse and the little girl and says: "Names Hickok45, names kinda strange huh, it's my YouTube name, you seen my videos right?" To which Jesse and the little girl both say: "no." Then, Hickok45 says: "Didn't think so, didn't think so." Then proceeds to laugh in an embarrassed sort of way. Yes, you heard me right, he uses his actual YouTube channel name, not his real name nor a fictitious name for the movie. The interaction between Jesse, the little girl, and Hickok45 is very out of place. You have two actresses staying in character, but then you have Hickok45, playing himself but asking them as if he is asking them in real life and not part of the script. It takes you so far out of context that it's awkward and a pretty stupid decision to include this as part of the actual movie script. His YouTube channel has nothing to do with the movie in any way, shape, or form. It serves no purpose to the audience to know Hickik45 is a YouTuber. Serves no purpose to the plot, script, or character relationship. It annoyed me hearing this pointless dialogue, which seems to only serve Hickok for promotional reasons. He got the part by being a known YouTuber for shooting guns, which doesn't entitle him to weirdly and awkwardly plug his channel. Also, Matt Carriker (the YouTuber I follow who also starred in this, and the reason why I watched it) plays a character called Lucas. Matt did not plug his YouTube channel, so why did they feel it was necessary to plug Hickok. You would think just starring in a film and having your name in the credits would be enough of a plug for you and your channel, or or even have your YouTube channel in the credits if you were that desperate. However, they felt it necessary to include it in the actual movie script.
It goes to show how unprofessional and shoddy this movie company is. Seemingly, they tried to make a cheap and poorly written "shoot 'em up" zombie film in the hopes of making an easy buck. They show no signs of passion or respect for the art and make a mockery of the industry by releasing this appalling excuse of a film. I feel sorry for the talented actors such as Jemma Dallender, Alexis Boozer Sterling, and Robert Forte Shannon III for having their names attached to such rubbish, even though they tried to make the most of a poorly directed film with a badly written script.
Overall, I give the movie 1 star. The movie started strong, with a good 5-minute opening, but bloated out in the middle with empty irrelevant filler with lots of boredom, bad audio, and questionable camera work. Fell flat at the end, but it didn't honestly have far to fall. This movie was a massive mistake from day one. It has awful writing, bad acting, lack of a plot, terrible sound design, and videography. Shallow practices and not to mention this has been in the making for at least four years (Matt's first video about his part was back in 2017), so you would have expected a lot more from a film that took over four years to makerelease (budget film or not). I cannot and will not be recommending Strain 100. It will be a waste of your time, a waste of your hard-earned money. And will only encourage this movie company to keep making more of the same rubbish in the future.
Lastly, I can understand if people want to support Matt. I wanted to do the same thing, but there are many other ways of doing so (I will be continuing to support Matt via other means). However, I cannot stand behind this film. A bad movie is a bad movie, regardless of whether your favourite celebrity is in it or not. I am also not shaming Matt in any way either. I respect him for wanting to try something new, and this has no reflection on his acting ability or life choices. The movie just was not good, with or without Matt.
Review by jayjsmith-47902 from the Internet Movie Database.
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