Pandemic, The fall of L.A.

L.A. is gone in this film, 2016's "Pandemic." The good news for you west coasters, the City of Angels did outlast New York City.  Witness to it all is the very pretty Rachel Nichols, who last time she was mentioned in this blog, was having her head caved in by Zoe Bell ( Raze ). With scenery right out of "Fear the Walking Dead," we have an eerie depiction of a once great city devastated by a zombie virus.  Dark, gory, and heartbreaking, "Pandemic" presents a horrific view of the last days of civilization.

NYC is dead. All available personnel, especially doctors are whisked to L.A...which isn't quite wiped out.  Dr. Lauren Chase (Nichols) is a surviving doctor and is immediately put on team 314 at a L.A. military base.  The offending virus seems unstoppable, though some breakthroughs have been made. Team 314 is immediately tasked.  They don their containment suits and are sent into L.A. to find survivors, and also the missing Team 313.  Also on the team is Gunner (Mekhi Phifer), an infantry guy who's wife was on team 313.  Wheeler (Alfie Allen) is the not so ex-con, who comes across as part psycho, the team's driver.  Finally, the pretty Denise (Missi Pyle) is Team 314's navigator.

Supposedly those infected and manifesting Level 1 symptoms can be cured.  The gunshots heard from the base's Level 1 hospital suggest otherwise.  Uh oh....Lauren has motives other than finding Team 313 and survivors. No matter, Team 314 is encountering mostly Level 5 infected (homicidal, cannibalistic, mutants).  You can probably guess the fate of Team 313, and Lauren decides to attempt to find her husband and daughter in the L.A. suburbs.  This won't be easy, as the fate of the suburbs is even more disastrous than L.A.  As Team 314 loses cohesion, and personnel to the cannibalistic fiends, Lauren finds unexpected help in the search for her family.

Will Lauren find her family?  If she does, will they be zombies?  What is Lauren's dark secret (...oh yes, and it's a doozy) that might endanger the lives of any survivor she comes in contact with? Not the feel good film of 2016, especially for Californians, but an effective scifi/horror yarn, nonetheless. Directed by John Suits, and featuring terrific performances by Ms. Nichols and her co-stars, "Pandemic" is a great catch on Netflix.