On Blu-ray & VOD from Mon 25 Feb 2019

In a time of civic terror, a viral outbreak threatens to destroy the UK. A squad of military bad-asses has been sent into the no-mans land; to contend with crazed maniacs, traps, and bands of roving gangs. Their mission, to find a cure, and fight their way back out alive.

If that sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because it’s the plot of Neil Marshall‘s 2008 film, Doomsday. A far more entertaining, if equally silly, action-horror film than Redcon-1, despite them both having a broadly similar concept. While sharing aspects with existing films isn’t isn’t automatically a bad thing, in the case of Redcon-1, it feels like writer/director Chee Keong Cheung has thrown everything but the kitchen sink into this passion project. Never once stopping to consider if any of it would fit together.

The plot follows Captain Marcus Stanton (Oris Erhuero), recently bereaved husband and father-to-be, whose pregnant wife was one of the first victims of a zombie-creating virus. He heads up a motley crew of hardened US and UK special forces operatives, sent in to extract the only scientist who may have a cure. Of course, once on the ground, things start to go wrong for the soldiers; plans fail, people die, and situations go from bad to worse in a predictable fashion. It’s a race against the clock, and these consummate professionals must strive to get the job done. Yet there’s still time found for an obligatory double-cross or two, a nude shower scene and a stolen moment of passion.

On the face of it, the film should tick every box that an action movie fan could have. It even mixes up things by having the zombies retain basic human functions. This gives rise to scenes of man vs. zombie kung-fu, and open battles with gun-toting undead soldiers. The trouble with Redcon-1 is that the plot unfolds in a manner quite unhurried and oddly paced. So much so, that despite the various action scenes, the movie is often quite dull.

It’s a real shame, since, despite Redcon-1‘s humble budget, it’s shot spectacularly. The film makes great use of the available resources and covers its own limitations with clever cinematography and blocking. The trouble is you can’t frame out a poor script, bad direction, and mediocre acting. From the offset, the film never bothers to establish many of the characters beyond a most basic facade. The one real exception being Stanton, who never comes across as being believable because of the ridiculousness of the situations and trite dialogue. Worse still, as the film winds towards its eventual conclusion, it starts to hit moments of forehead-slapping absurdity and nonsensical plotting.

It would be unfair to call Redcon-1 a total loss. There are moments of ingenuity and entertaining action. It’s clear that a lot of love and care went into this film, it’s a shame that the talent wasn’t backing it up in the areas where it was most needed. With a better script and decent direction, this could have been a B-movie classic.