If there is one thing I pride myself on, it is my unbridled passion for movies. I love the process of making them, I love the storytelling aspect of them, I love the community they create among the people who make them and the people who watch them. I think storytelling is one of the most fundamental traits of mankind. Many people have criticized me in the past for ‘liking everything’ and I have issues with that statement. There have been many movies I have disliked, but if you watch movies with a positive attitude, there is something of value to be found in most films. And you always have to appreciate the work put into them. Where this work is most evident is in the lower budget films and the renegade filmmakers. They do this strictly for the love of filmmaking, because we all know damn well they aren’t getting rich off it. A great local case in point is Foresight Features; an independent film company right here in Ontario made up of people who were friends first and later became filmmakers together. Their first feature was Monster Brawl, a rousing and ambitious horror comedy that came out last year to favorable response. Their new film is even more ambitious, Exit Humanity.
Edward Young (Mark Gibson) has survived during the bloody American Civil War. He returns home from battle to find his wife and child dead and struggles with his own declining will to live. A deadly outbreak has claimed the land and legions of the undead are now wandering the landscape. Edward had encountered some of them during battle, but their numbers are increasing and the odds of survival dwindling. The only man who seems to be prepared to survive is the maniacal General Williams (Bill Moseley) along with his medic (Stephen McHattie) and a small army. Edward joins up with Isaac (Adam Seybold), Emma (Jordan Hayes) and Eve (Dee Wallace), a mysterious recluse living alone in the woods. Together they must find a way to survive the outbreak and stop the murderous General Williams.
Exit Humanity has a lot going for it. First off, it is a spectacularly gorgeous film. The photography, costumes, sets and makeup all seem to go far beyond the films modest budget. It really is impressive to take it all in. The setting of the story is also very original, making a zombie story take place during the Civil War; it makes for some interesting analogies about man against man conflicts. The talent is also impressive here. From the relatively unknown Mark Gibson as the emotionally destroyed Edward Young to the impressive lineup of genre actors including the scene chewing Moseley and McHattie and the underappreciated Dee Wallace. Everyone does a good job with their roles and take the film to a higher level in the genre. The movie is actually pretty dialogue heavy, which is also unusual for the genre but a welcome change. The only issues I had with the film were a few story related conundrums. I thought some of the dialogue was a little wooden; it almost seemed like the script was rushed out and not give the proper number of revisions and rewrites. It could have used some more polish to really give it the quality it deserved among the other praiseworthy aspects of the film. There were even incidents in the film that didn’t really make sense. A man knocks out another man, presumably to overpower him. When the one man wakes up he is at gunpoint, but within minutes, the captor just hands him back his gun and they are on their merry way. There was no justification for the knockout in the first place and no resolution that changed them from enemies to allies. Another scene stood out as well involving leading a group of zombies to accomplish something, but I wouldn’t want to ruin actual scenes during the climax, so I won’t go into that one, suffice to say again it didn’t make such logical sense. Overall though, Exit Humanity is an excellent effort from some obviously talented filmmakers and I for one am hotly anticipating what Foresight Features will do next and beyond.
The Blu-ray from Anchor Bay is great and represents the hard work put into the look of the film. Black levels are nice and deep, colors are muted on purpose but solid and stable, and detail and clarity are exceptional. This is one damn nice looking movie and Anchor Bay’s transfer shows it off nicely. While there were some script issues with Exit Humanity, it is definitely worth a look for all of the things the filmmakers did get right. Recommended.
