‘Extinction’ is hopefully not the last movie of its kind

It isn’t very often that I do a review or a preview for a film that isn’t directly connected to The Walking Dead.  Despite the fact that I usually watch a horror movie every night, I tend to stick to Robert Kirkman’s visions as closely as possible on Undead Walking.

However, when the opportunity arose for me to get an advance look at the movie ‘Extinction’ prior to the September 1, 2015 DVD and Digital HD release date, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

‘Extinction’ is a zombie survival movie that stars Matthew Fox (‘Lost’ and ‘World War Z’) and Jeffrey Donovan (‘Burn Notice’ and ‘Hitch’) and is based on the novel ‘Y pese a todo…’ by Juan de Dios Garduno.  It is the tale of the end of humanity from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment of the two main characters putting aside their personal problems with each other to overcome a massive attack from the undead.

As soon as I put the DVD in the player, I got a pleasant surprise.  The first preview was for Robert Kirkman’s film ‘Air’ starring The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus.  I wasn’t expecting there to be a tie-in to The Walking Dead, but just seeing this preview helped me get in the mood.  When you add in the preview for ‘Insidious: Chapter 3’ (which I massively enjoyed) and an interesting look at a thriller called ‘Broken Horses’ (now on my list of movies to see), I was well prepared to watch ‘Extinction’ even though I had little to no expectations.

The movie takes place in a town called Harmony, which is quite a play on words because there wasn’t much harmony going on there.  The town was already overrun by monsters that devour human flesh and survivors need military escorts to ensure their safety.  After their bus transport got taken over by very fast and ruthless zombies, Patrick (Fox), Jack (Donovan) and Lu (Quinn McColgan) were able to flee from the carnage and survive for nine years on their own.  However, during a supply run, it is discovered that the undead have evolved since their last contact with them.

‘Extinction’ has a little bit of everything.  The characters are well-developed and there are instances of both comedy and drama to go with the impending sense of horror that we know is approaching as the film goes on.  I was expecting a generic zombie movie with gratuitous gore and little to no characterization, but I was pleasantly surprised by the way this film was able to draw me in to the characters after giving me the initial taste of violence and gore to get my attention from the very beginning while flipping the script on traditional apocalyptic horror flicks.

Without giving away too much, I do want to say that things do get a little weird psychologically in ‘Extinction’, but that’s a positive thing.  The evolved form of these zombies can do things that fans of The Walking Dead have only seen from Tyreese so far on the hit AMC show.  It is that kind of messing with the minds of the characters and how they respond to them that make this movie unique.

Overall, this won’t be a movie for everyone.  Fans of zombie movies might find the monsters to be a bit outside their realm of liking.   Meanwhile, fans of traditional horror movies could find the pacing of the show to be too slow, as the characterization dominates much of the film’s second act.  Despite that, this is a movie that I have to recommend to everyone. It is a unique look at the end of the world and tells a great story involving characters that really grow on you.  I think fans of The Walking Dead might enjoy this film if they give it a solid chance.

Finally, I recommend you take a look at the trailer for the film, so you can make up your own mind as to whether you want to watch ‘Extinction’ or not.  Here is the trailer from the Zero Media YouTube account:

‘Extinction’ is rated R for horror violence, terror and language.  You can pick up your copy on DVD or Digital HD on September 1, 2015.

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