I have been a bit tardy when it comes to watching films received for review these past few weeks. Despite getting lots of screeners over the Halloween period, I've been delaying them, knowing that I had a week booked off of my day job. That week has now arrived, so next on my list for review is Ben Curtis-Horsfall's short horror film - The Decay. This 10 minute whirlwind has its rotted toes in that most beloved of horror sub-genres, the zombie genre. Following a strong start, would this be able to maintain that momentum from beginning to end?
A heavily injured young woman (Heather Lambourn) stumbles towards St Vincent's Medical Centre; a run-down and swamped doctors surgery that is the work place of an overworked and over stressed doctor (John Joseph). Past the point of caring, he barely even glances at the woman as she comes into his room for her appointment, more concerned with fixing an issue with his PC he is having. Giving her some place holder responses to her telling him of her ailments, he only finally stops and focuses on her when she says that 'he attacked her' and assumes that she is the victim of domestic abuse. After a quick check-up and seeing how injured she appears, he tells the woman to head to hospital ASAP, so off she goes on her way. This turns out to be a fatal error...
This short didn't go where I had wanted it to go, but that doesn't take away what a well formed horror this was. I loved the portrayal of a zombie outbreak from a more realistic perspective, and I loved the editing and direction throughout this. From the moment I heard the nasally whiney doctor's voice I disliked him, something that was confirmed by his uncaring treatment of the woman. Kudos to the actor though, as by the end of the short I had come full circle and thought he was a great character. He is flawed, but even within this short ten minute time frame the flaw is explained, with the man under such pressure and stress in his job that he just feels he doesn't have the time or energy to be the doctor he should be. L (as the woman comes to be known) was also well cast, I liked the struggling way the actress breathed her lines.
The nightmare I had envisioned was the doctor realising all too late he essentially had 'patient 0' on his hands but had allowed her to go and start something potentially apocalyptic. The finale, as different as it was to what I hoped, was expertly done, Joseph seeming to have unlimited levels of increasing dawning horror for his doctor character.
The nightmare I had envisioned was the doctor realising all too late he essentially had 'patient 0' on his hands but had allowed her to go and start something potentially apocalyptic. The finale, as different as it was to what I hoped, was expertly done, Joseph seeming to have unlimited levels of increasing dawning horror for his doctor character.
The incidental moments within the short were all impressive. I enjoyed the subtle background signs that things have started to go bad outside the small scope of the short's setting, and I liked the CG moments where the camera goes 'inside' the woman to show what is happening within her body as her infection spreads, and I loved the end credits that scroll over various news reports with harrowing and escalating content. I also liked the found footage intro, the chaotic scenes bringing to mind the last moments of the Dawn of the Dead remake that were too shown as found footage. Some of the CG effects looked a bit artificial, especially with the ending, but that didn't stop me re-watching that final scene about ten times in a row, really enjoyed how it all played out regardless of the CG, which was well done, but just seemed a bit layered onto the footage.
This was an excellent zombie short. It was an impressive ten minutes that had me picking up little details I hadn't noticed before even on a third watch. Indie horror The Decay was wonderfully edited and directed and in general just a darn impressive short. The Decay released on October 31st from Seven Horses Films.
SCORE:
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