Zombie With A Shotgun (2019)

Back in 2019, I stumbled upon a project that was being released as a film, but they had a comic book that was going to be the companion to the film. I thought that it was a pretty cool concept that I had seen on Kickstarter, but over time I had lost track until I was reminded on Twitter that the film Zombie With A Shotgun was available for free on Tubi and if you have Amazon Prim, it's available there as well. The film stars Braeden Baade (One Under The Sun) as Aaron, a guy on the run from everyone because Aaron is not sure if he is infected with the zombie virus or some other virus all in general because of the effects he's feeling. For this very reason along with his girlfriend Rachel (Kathryn Kuhn) they start discovering that there is more to what is happening then they ever knew before. The film also stars Kyle Hester (The Book Of Daniel) as Hank Ray, Emilie Paap (Mama Claus, Deck the Halls with Guts) as Melissa, Chelsea LeSage (Existential Mashed Potatoes ) as Angela, Jeremy Fultz (The Greed Of Men) as Hobo, Brandi Satterfield (The Inquisition of Camilo Sanz) as Alina, David Lee (Mad Full Of Dreams) as Mr. Yoshida, and the film was written and directed by Hilton Ariel Ruiz (6/6/66).

If I am being 100% honest about the film, I loved the effort to make something that was different than what we normally get with zombie movies, but the execution was just not there. The story at times just felt like it was a little too rushed and things were happening that were just confusing me and people were making choices that baffled me as well. There are certain things that are just not avoidable when you do not have the proper budget and I can't fault them for that because you do the best you can with what you have. I could pick apart the special effects when it comes to the gunshots, but I won't because you do the best you can with what you have. The one thing I will talk about is the audio issues and that is because I am a stickler for that side of production. There were times when the audio was fine and you could clearly hear what the actors were saying and then there were times when a boom or shotgun mic were clearly not present for the scene and the audio became muffled or just too low. The audio issues was really my only main issue with the film because the special effects makeup is where it was at in this film and makes me wonder if that is where all the money went. I loved the make up that Braeden Baade is in when it's shown him as a zombie months later and even before that was good with all the veins. I definitely enjoyed the weird satanic imagery as well with the very beautiful Chelsea LeSage channeling her inner enchantress. I love the effort they put in to this film because it's obvious they cared about the project, but too many faults for my liking and that is why I am giving the film an C+ for a final grade.