Hungerford |
UK • 2014 • 79m •
   • Directed by: Drew Casson. • Starring: Georgia Bradley, Sam Carter, Drew Casson, Mark Cusack, James Haslam, Matthew Jackson, Lee Kelly, Nigel Morgan, Colin Murtagh, Paul Radziwill, Tom Scarlett, Jenna Sharpe, Kitty Speed..    Cowen Rosewell lives with a small group of old friends in a scruffy flat in a small English town. Like many teens leaving school in 2014, there are few prospects or opportunities for people like Cowen and he has enrolled on a BTEC media course as a way of passing the time. His first assignment is to record everything in a week of his life. At first Cowen dismisses the random acts of violence he witnesses as the business as usual in a small English town. However, when one of his best friends is savagely attacked by a stranger, and in defending her they kill her assailant, the inexplicably serious nature of the dead assailant's injuries alert them to a more disturbing reality. As events escalate, Cowen and his friends discover that the town has come under a mysterious malign influence which is somehow controlling organised gangs who are rounding people up and taking them to a nearby factory. The friends hide, hoping to escape, but their sanctuary is discovered and over run. Finally ...
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Review:
While "The Darkest Dawn" focuses on being an alien invasion type movie all throughout, in this the alien invasion angle is only revealed at the very end, although the "bug" infesters are present from virtually the beginning. As such, the emphasis is entirely on the infested people, causing them to behave like zombies, basically, only with the intention of capturing people wherever possible.
Meanwhile, the "zombie" people are an extremely minimal part of "The Darkest Dawn" as almost all the real threats come from other humans struggling to survive. The zombie people are almost never present in "The Darkest Dawn", whereas in this film, they are practically swarming in many areas.
The backstory I got in "The Darkest Dawn" in terms of Cowen and the group losing Philippa and having encountered the soldier commander guy, was extremely minimal and thus was good for letting one's imagination run wild. With those events filled in by this film (which came first), it only causes even more massive plot holes in the sequel. Namely, we don't know how or why the soldier commander guy got separated from Cowen's group, or how Philippa just happened to end up reuniting with the soldier commander guy.
Another utterly massive plothole thrown by the film involves fighting the zombies. In "The Darkest Dawn", the only way to stop them, it seems, is a brief blood transfusion from someone with type O negative blood in order to prevent the alien bug from taking control. This also means the infested person needs multiple transfusions to continuously put down the alien bug.
Meanwhile here in "Hungerford", all it takes is a quick spray to the face with an aerosol deodorant, and not only is the zombie person incapacitated, but the alien bug actually leaves their body and tries to escape.
How they somehow forgot this fact between the two films is one that I feel could ruin the sequel for people who view "Hungerford" first. Since I saw the sequel first, this ruined "Hungerford" for me.
Beyond the links to its sequel, this film was just boring throughout. Nothing particularly new or interesting was done with its zombies or infestation methods. Events are painfully predictable, and none of the characters are strong or charismatic enough to carry the film. "The Darkest Dawn" made the wise decision to continue the story of "Hungerford" while framing it from the point of view of a new and unrelated character who is much more interesting and charismatic. Unfortunately, this film as it stands on its own, is just bad.
Review by Andariel Halo from the Internet Movie Database.
Movie Database