Zombie movies are the order of the moment for so many filmmakers working right now, and it’s tough to really find any good zombie entertainment. How do you take a pretty tired concept and turn it in to something interesting or worth investing your time in? Shockingly director and writer Mitch Cohen found a way. Rather than basing his entire short zombie movie on zombies, he instead explores the more humanistic element of the apocalypse, centering on a small group of people trying to survive, and how one seemingly irrelevant young man becomes their savior.
Josh Hershberg just found out he has terminal cancer, and is completely defeated. After spending his life barely making a mark on anyone, he decides to launch an online confessional before he commits suicide. Oddly enough the suicide fails, but as he’s given another grasp at life, the world changes drastically after a disastrous space expedition brings something utterly apocalyptic to Earth’s water supply. Director Cohen manages to pay homage to past zombie and virus films without making the winks too obvious, and the restraint is much appreciated. From the space origins a la “Night of the Living Dead,” to the title card reading “29 Days Later…” I had a good time seeing what he’d do with this premise. Director Cohen paces the film well, giving us the origin of our hero, and then zooming to the end of the world.
Now a lone survivor, Josh comes across a small band of survivors in a warehouse that are fleeing from the walking dead. Director Cohen is able to launch a ton of exposition within the seams of the action and gore, and I like how he engages us in the characters while there is so much going on. Umberto Celisano is great as protagonist Josh, whose terminal cancer has him on a ticking clock, but proves to be a surprisingly clever nemesis for the walking dead. There are also fun turns from Giselle Gilbert, Tyler White, and Al Bernstein respectively, all of whom bring a unique element to the narrative. I’d love to see “Super Zero” turned in to a feature film, as the short director Cohen creates plants seeds for a ton of interesting sub-plots, and pretty bad ass turn of events involving Josh’s ability for creating deadly devices with steel and mundane objects. Director Mitch Cohen definitely has formed a different kind of zombie movie that’s well worth a major feature film, and perhaps a sequel down the line.