Saturday, November 27, 2021

Island Zero, Something Attacks Maine

Something has converged on an isolated Maine island at Christmas time. How do we know its Christmas Time? The weirdest Christmas carols keep playing...carols I've never heard before. They remind me of John Carpenter's synthesized Halloween score...only with a holiday motif. This is appropriate because the monster in this is just as eerie and uncomfortable. All this will play out to the detriment of grouchy New England islanders during an attack from the sea in 2018's "Island Zero."
As our film begins a weird old guy and his annoying dog are...well...its not good. We arrive at the island of misfit grouches only to find out their fishing nets are bare and no fish swim in their waters anymore. Why? Yep...something is in the water and it is closing in on them. With fish gone, a new source of food will be needed by the invader. We meet a lot of characters, none likable, but Sam (Adam Wade McLaughlin) is a biologist. He has come to the island after his biologist wife was eaten by a sea creature. Whatever got his wife...he has followed to this island...bad move.
Maggie (Laila Robins) is the town doctor and she has a lot of guns...smart. Then Titus (Matthew Wilkas) is a novelist...or is he? Oh yes...Lucy (Teri Reeves) is the only babe in the film and her fate will be so sad. With electricity cut off by the monster and no ferries on their way, most of the population crams on two boats headed to the mainland...they will all die horribly. Now a handful of grouchy survivors must prepare for an invasion from the sea. They are ill equipped. But wait! Titus isn't who he claims to be and when he lets the islanders (bait) know what they're up against, Maggie forms a plan...albeit, not a very good one. Whatever has eaten all the fish in the sea is now heading to meet the survivors...or sample the menu, if you will.
Just what is in the sea and why hasn't anyone on the mainland come to help? Who exactly is Titus and what does he know? What took Sam's wife and what was she looking for when it got her? Directed by Josh Gerritsen, this sea monster flick is eerie and almost hypnotizing. The final reveal will be wild and ambitious. Not the feel good film of 2018, but it is refreshing to see horror from Maine without Stephen King's name attached.

1 comment:

  1. The internet killed Steven King, because then no one read books anymore.. great point...

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