by Ed Travis
I have a disease; an infection, if you will. If Scott Adkins is in a movie, I instantly want to see it. There’s just something about him that I enjoy championing. He’s simultaneously a bruising, ripped, hulk of a man with bone-crunching martial arts skills, and the underdog. He’s a big screen action hero born during a generation where our action heroes struggle to get their films onto the big screens. Sure, he’s made appearances in films like The Expendables 2 and Zero Dark Thirty, but his star vehicles generally don’t get a lot of big screen play. So I guess of all the causes in all the world that I could choose to champion, what with running my own film website and all… I’ve let myself get bit by the Scott Adkins bug. If I can see and write about one of his films, I’ll generally bite. I still haven’t seen them all, and they aren’t honestly all worth seeing, but I’m always interested in seeing his star power grow.
IMDb Plot Summary:
It’s been 5 years since the outbreak that wiped out 85% of the world’s population, but the war between Re-Animates (Re-Ans) and Humans wages on. Most of the major cities are still uninhabitable. Within the few surviving cities, the Re-Ans have been segregated into “zones” and are policed by the R-Division of the QUASI S.W.A.T. Unit who hunt to re-kill the Re-Ans in the hope of quelling a second outbreak.
— Written by Svetlio Svilenov
Re-Kill, a film that was completely off my radar until Adkins himself shared something about it on social media, is one of those small screen affairs in which he plays a supporting role in an ensemble cast. He’s basically Full Metal Jacket’s Animal Mother in this film, an alpha male zombie killing soldier who’s all testosterone. Despite his action hero cred, Adkins is often playing strong, silent types and the “rah-rah” soldier bit did feel like some new ground for him. I also enjoy seeing Adkins get to shoot automatic weapons a whole lot… even if, as is the case here, it comes at the expense of seeing him do any of his signature martial arts.
Perhaps it’s clear by now that I only watched this movie because Scott Adkins. But perhaps I do need to address the actual film at hand as well. Just one of the slate of 8 “Films To Die For” from this year’s After Dark Horror line up, I have to admit that these films rarely appeal to me and generally feature artwork and marketing that actively repel me. That said, years back when After Dark did a similar series only with action movies, I checked out a few and there were some diamonds in the rough, with Dragon Eyes springing to mind, and even Adkins’ own El Gringo. I believe it was through that film, as well as the fact that Re-Kill’s writer Michael Hurst also wrote Ninja and Ninja II (my favorite Adkins film of all) that Adkins got connected here. Point being: After Dark is generally not putting out stuff I’m interested in. They do strictly budgeted genre fare that’s more or less bound for home consumption, but which also rarely gets a lot of buzz outside of local Redboxes.
I’m therefore pleasantly surprised to suggest that Re-Kill isn’t half bad. There’s not enough here for a strong recommend. Or maybe there’s TOO MUCH here for a strong recommend. It’s a busy and exhausting 80-something minutes of zombie killing action satire that doesn’t do much that hasn’t been done before, but does cram so much energy and ideas and volume your way that more ends up sticking than you’d probably have guessed. The premise is that Re-Kill is itself a show within a show, a reality TV program about a unit of zombie killing soldiers. You’re also watching this show inside of a bookend story where a little girl is watching this same show on her television. So as we watch Re-Kill along with her, there are fake ads (“re-populate through sex!”, “joint the Army!”) that crib Starship Troopers whole cloth, and tire quickly, but at the same time, are kind of appreciated. Then, on top of all that busyness and “future TV” satire, you’ve also got zombies who are super fast, extra strong, and very hard to kill. These aren’t the lumbering zombies that only threaten you in swarms. Rather, these are the zombies that require multiple gunshots to the brainstem to take them out completely.
When it comes to DTV films and strictly low budget stuff like what After Dark is doing, one thing that’s important to look for is a filmmaking team with something to prove. I’m regularly amazed at how many of these types of films are totally limp and lifeless, wasting an opportunity for some talent to emerge when there are literally hundreds of filmmakers who would kill for the same opportunity. I’m conversely thrilled, then, when a team of filmmakers use the opportunity, albeit with limited means, to create a calling card of sorts. Re-Kill is directed by Valeri Milev, who just came off of directing the most recent film in the Wrong Turn series. Here in Re-Kill he takes advantage of limited resources and throws a million ideas at the wall. The result is a frenetic, fast paced, zombie action film that doesn’t exactly prove that there’s a whole lot of life left in the zombie subgenre, but does prove it can occasionally be re-animated for an entertaining 80 minutes or so.
And I’m Out.
Re-Kill hit Digital HD™ and VOD on October 16 and DVD on October 27 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment