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Breakdown
USA 2020
produced by Thomas Haley, Joseph Osborn, Amy De Santiago (executive) for H2 Crew Productions
directed by Thomas Haley
starring Thomas Haley, Corey Sorenson, Jessica Cameron, Brooklyn Haley, John Marrott, Jerry Broome, Elise Angell, Alexander T. Hwang, Elena Chin, Noah DeLeon, Genaro Marzan, Jesey Leann Davis, Vanessa Fuentes, Koda Haley, Marie Nolan (voice)
written by Dan Jagels, makeup & special effects by Elena Chin
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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Earth has been overrun by a deadly virus that has taken such a toll on
humanity that all those infected are locked away in "quarantine
zones", with medical teams combing the cities regularly looking for
the sick to ship off - which pretty much has led to the collapse of
civilisation as those who could afford it, abandoned their homes, leaving
whole towns to marauders. Tim (Thomas Haley) is one of the infected, but
he's also a scientist who's convinced he can find a cure - and since he
failed to gain any attention for that in quarantine zone, he has made his
getaway and now breaks into an abandoned veterinary clinic to call both
his home and his lab. And while his progress with the vaccine for the
virus is painfully slow, what's even more painful is fighting loneliness,
is not being overcome with grief about his family having been taken by the
virus - and then there's of course also practical problems in regards to
finding food and even cooking food with no energy or water safe for what's
in the fish tank. Also, he's not the only one who has found the place, as
ever so often he has to hide from marauders searching the place for scraps
of food, some dangerous and armed like Cutter (John Marrott) and Otis
(Jerry Broome), some sick and desparate like himself like Kimberly
(Brooklyn Haley), while the most comfort he gets is from his lab rat and
from Gabriel (Corey Sorenson), a shopwindow dummy having come to life only
in his mind. And as Tim's condition worsens steadily, the only thing that
keeps him going is that developing the vaccine always remains just out of
reach ... Horror fave Jessica Cameron has the "honour" of
finding the first victim of the virus. A rather compelling
end-of-the-world thriller that sure enough has taken some inspiration from
Richard Matheson's I
am Legend, but replaces much of the book's horror and science
fiction elements with a rather touching character study that's more or
less free of spectacle, but instead shows the painfully gradual decline of
its protagonist, very ably embodied by Thomas Haley. And a nicely
structured screenplay, and a directorial effort that gets the most out of
its limited sets and manages to create atmosphere while giving the film's
lead enough space to come into his own ensue that this is a very solid
genre piece - a word of warning though, this is an intentionally rather
depressing movie, so you might want to be in the right mindset to watch it
...
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