The ReZort

It’s Westworld meets Jurassic Park with a stopover in the Land of the dead resulting in The ReZort, a surprisingly entertaining take on a fatigued horror creature staple.

Following a near-apocolyptic zombie outbreak, humans have regained control of the world. Not only that, but a savvy businesswoman opens up an exclusive island for the rich to safely hunt the remaining undead. It’s not long before everything goes predictably wrong, and the guests must fight their way to the beach before the island is totalled by the military.

Dougray Scott ably leads the pack as Archer, a silent veteran, because with a name like that it’d be criminal not to. This is a man whose seen things no man ever should, but still manages to maintain his humanity – but understandably hides his emotions. Not far behind are Melanie and Lewis, a couple who travel to The ReZort to help Melanie overcome her fear of zombies. This particular development of character is crucial later on, and it’s an aspect in which The ReZort gets so right – the balance between character evolution and narrative unfolding is damn near perfect. Every player is interesting enough to care about their potential demise too, including the irritating British best friends Jack and Alfie, who are almost a caricature of the nation’s residents. Rounding off the group is Sadie, a jilted bride who hides a secret. It’s refreshing to have a horror where the cast aren’t just there to be killed off, and have been fleshed out enough to willingly invest in their personal stories.

Zombies are a tiresome bunch nowadays. If you’ll excuse the pun, they’ve been done to death. But there was something about the ones in The ReZort which made them appear more threatening. They seemed more intelligent than your average walker: one even remembers the abuse she suffered from the island owner and begins a vendetta against her. It’s the small things like this which make The ReZort standout in an oversaturated subgenre, but make no mistake – there’s plenty of cheese to fill up on here.

The dialogue is routine stuff, and the acting is slightly above average for a low budget production, but it is undeniably a B Movie in every aspect. I’d have liked to have seen ‘zones’ for different kinds of zombies, or some that were stronger than others given that it’s advertised as a safari. The scare count is pretty low too, which leads me to believe the film was sold on its premise alone. It’s unfortunate, as the location and setting could have led to a number of innovate jumps.

The ReZort is very much one of those cheap package holidays – everything you expect to be there is, you can’t really complain at the small niggles because you knew what you were getting yourself in for, and it’s not going to be one of those trips you’ll fondly remember forever but you’ll occasionally look back and recall what a good time you had.