Director David Frayne’s “The First Wave” is intended as a prologue for a now in the works feature film. And from what I’ve seen in the entire six minutes of this short introduction, the feature film version of “The First Wave” promises to be quite an incredible twist on the zombie sub-genre.After a massive epidemic of flesh eating zombies plagues the city and families are consumed, science has finally found a way to cure the epidemic. Now once walking dead cannibals are turning up in hospitals cured, as doctors anxiously try to move forward and maintain the steady rise of recuperated monsters.
Jane has awoken in the hospital and is horrified to be reliving much of what occurred during a chase with a mom and her daughter. The problem is that Jane keeps getting flashes of that night, and it may curse her forever. What “The First Wave” is smart to explore is what happens if a cure is found for being a zombie?And how do you recuperate from being a flesh eating monster and are cured? But have retained all of the memories of slaughtering innocent victims and eating people alive? How does one even come back from that? How do you rebuild your life when you continue remembering eating poor families whole?
Is it worth even restarting the entire world when most of the flesh eating dead are now catatonic guilt stricken patients with the inability to cope with their acts? Who do you talk to? How can anyone relate to their dilemmas? “The First Wave” is a marvelous and creepy horror film with the focus more so on the dramatic elements first and foremost. While the feature length film may have massive zombie chaos, I also expect it to be a very creative glimpse at getting over living as a cannibalistic monster, and how one can atone for gruesome acts that were beyond their control. Director Frayne balances the drama and horror perfectly, staging horrifying zombie scenes, along with a very heartbreaking glimpse at young Jane who, whether she likes it or not, has to live with the memories of the dead.