Colin (2008)
Studio: Spirit Entertainment
Directed by: Marc Price
Starring: Alistair Kirton, Daisy Atkins, Leanne Pammen, Tat Whalley
Reviewed by: Ben Bussey

Let’s get this out of the way: If you’re at all casually familiar with Colin, you’ve probably heard it referred to as ‘The £45 Zombie Movie.’ This estimated budget – the bulk of which Price claims went on tea, coffee, and biscuits – is what has brought the film the bulk of its publicity, and Spirit Entertainment have even gone so far as to slap those very words on the cover of the DVD. I get it: it’s a nice, attention grabbing hook. But it doesn’t remotely do justice to what Colin really is. DIY filmmaking it may be, but there is very little that is amateurish about this movie. Let there be no mistake, Colin is not just good by comparison with most no-budget horror; Colin is easily one of the very best films I’ve seen this year.

It’s one of those concepts which seems so simple, so obvious – it begs belief that it hasn’t been done by now. It’s the quintessential zombie story that we know and love – dead walk, civilisation falls, yahoos run riot – but told from the perspective of a zombie. If you’ve seen the clip that Marc posted on Friday, you’ll know the action begins with Colin still alive and the world falling apart around him. Once he succumbs to the inevitable, he’s stumbling aimlessly along in that pathetic way zombies do. But by staying with him, seeing his emotionless detachment from the madness he encounters on the streets of London, we’re forced to look at things in a somewhat different light. He may not be quite a man, but is he really a monster? Could there be anything left of the man that was inside?

The manner in which this apocalypse is conveyed is ingenious to say the least. By and large, staying close to Colin at all times, the soundtrack is constantly crackling with the sound of distant gunshots, car alarms, screams and struggles, with minimal dialogue. Now, you might assume that as the story is told from Colin’s perspective and the whole thing was shot on DV, that means this is going to be another first person camcorder flick like [REC] or Diary of the Dead. Happily, this is not the case. The weak of stomach need not fear, for while the dreaded shaky-cam does rear its head in the more violent sequences, on the whole the photography (courtesy of director Price himself) is admirably restrained, with many striking, beautiful, and thankfully stationary shots. Not only does this approach make a virtue of the low production values, but also it means that proceedings pack a genuine emotional punch. There’s an intimacy and emotional rawness here that none of the spate of recent camcorder zombie movies have come close to achieving. This, of course, is thanks in no small part to Kirton’s masterful turn as the titular zombie. He and Price have both acknowledged Day of the Dead’s Bub as an influence, but I dare say their creation is the strongest contender yet for his crown as King of the Zombies. I’d even go so far as to say there are echoes of Karloff’s Frankenstein.

Does this mean that Colin will be to all tastes? Sad to say, I rather doubt it. As it eschews the camp and trashy approach that so many no-budgeters take in favour of a generally stone cold serious tone, many will almost certainly find it too slow, somber, and uneventful, perhaps hankering for more of the human survivor stories we’re accustomed to in the sub-genre. However, Colin does find some room for the living, and perhaps ironically it’s in those sequences that the film comes close to losing its way. It has to be said, while Kirton has the art of portraying the walking dead down to a T, the bulk of his zombie co-stars don’t come close. It’s in the busier, more populated sequences – various street attacks, and an extended house siege – that the DIY nature of the production is most apparent. Many of the incidental characters are not especially well-acted, and do sour things somewhat, particularly as their strands take us away from Colin for a time. Indeed, though it is only around 95 minutes long, it does feel just a little bit protracted, and could have stood to lose a good ten minutes or so.

But these, I must emphasise, are minor complaints indeed. Colin comes at a time when I for one have been losing hope not just for the zombie genre, but for no-budget indie horror overall. There’s so much worthless crap out there, and it’s often hard to remember just why it is we watch movies like this. Then along comes a film like Colin, and it grabs you by the shoulders, shakes you up, and reminds you that you can still be surprised, you can still be captivated, you can still be moved. That it achieves this with the use of the kind of bog-standard recording equipment that is accessible to most of us only adds to that emotion, and only partially because it makes you say, “shit, why didn’t I think of that?”

I count myself very lucky for not only being one of the few in the UK who will see this in cinemas, but for being present at the UK premiere at London’s Prince Charles Cinema with Price and Kirton in attendance. In their intro and post-screening Q&A, both men buzzed with nervous energy – Price in particular, who continually expressed his surprise at the turn-out. I had the chance to approach him afterward and tell him how much I loved the film, and I’m not ashamed to admit I slipped fully into fan mode, gushing in a mildly embarrassing fashion, and completely failing to say a word about this website or my impending review. But hey, careerism be damned. Like I said, it’s movies like Colin that remind me why I ever wanted to write about films in the first place: to celebrate that which has delighted and inspired me. I can happily say that Colin has done both, and as such I whole-heartedly recommend seeking it out.

(One key point I did pick up from the Q&A, however, is that US distribution has not yet been secured, so all you people stateside might have to make sure you’ve got multi-region and go check it out at Amazon UK.)

Brutal As Hell Rating: 4.5 out of 5