‘Silent Zone’ (2025)
Do postapocalyptic zombie thrillers ever get saggy, gray and flabby like the decaying flesh of the cannibalistic undead? Yes and no. Nothing will ever have the profound resonance of George Romero’s genre-defining classic, “Night of the Living Dead” (1968), despite the many that have followed bloody suit. Even the 15-year (and still going) “Walking Dead” series on AMC has less effect; Danny Boyle’s “28 Days Later” was among the first to move zombies from slow shambles to sprinting, ravenous physicality, followed by Zack Snyder (“Justice League”) pushing them toward superhuman in his amped-up “Dawn of the Dead” (2004) and giving them a video-game-style boss-level, alpha zombie in “Army of the Dead” (2021). This lo-fi action movie is much like the latter, and while it’s ambitious in scope and gritty in execution, it’s routinely trite in plot. Based on the novel “Welcome to the Silent Zone” by Viktor Csák, who shares a screenwriting credit, the film begins with the collapse of civilization. Abigail (Katalin Krenn), a girl in a charming suburban home, watches her mom and baby brother get munched to mush and transform into rabid undead. Fortunately, Cassius, a strapping military type (Matt Devere) happens to be passing by. Flash forward 10 years and Cassius and Abigail, now a young woman played by Luca Papp, live in the woods trying to avoid the packs of zombies and their scouts, who communicate through clicks, grunts and snarled growls. The goal is to get to safety in “the colony,” a commune aboard a flotilla of old cargo ships. Cassius’ cold, go-it-alone-and-don’t-get-bogged-down mindset conflicts with Abigail’s idealism, something that comes to a head when they come across a pregnant woman and her husband. For its shoestring budget, “Silent Zone,” directed by Péter Deák, does impress in makeup, sets and action choreography. Devere’s Cassius is a bit too one-note, but Papp provides a grounding offset with a wisp of naiveté. The plot plays along like a Game Boy fantasy – it’s the end of the world as we know it, and we know exactly what’s around the next bend of the dilapidated building our survivors are about to bust into. On Apple TV+.
Cambridge writer Tom Meek’s reviews, essays, short stories and articles have appeared in WBUR’s The ARTery, The Boston Phoenix, The Boston Globe, The Rumpus, The Charleston City Paper and SLAB literary journal. Tom is also a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics and rides his bike everywhere.
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