REVIEW: Screenplay For Rise
I had the pleasure of reading over a pretty decent zombie movie called Rise. Much like some of the indie zombie films before it, it combines the gritty realism of desert warfare with the iconic zombie subgenre. Here we find Sox, a highly skilled soldier, grieving after the death of her husband and her recently deceased 14-year-old daughter. Although, she finds out that her daughter was killed after being exposed to drugs from the same cartel that killed her husband. Now, out for revenge, she pulls together a special team of soldiers to infiltrate the cartel base but she gets more then she bargains for when she realized what the side effect of the new drug is.
What I noticed right off the bat is that I could imagine this movie being very fast-paced and having this orange tint to everything, giving the audience a hot and uncomfortable atmosphere. I cannot help but think that this movie is mainly a crime drama or a military themed drama that happens to have zombies in it. Throughout most of the story you spend time with the main characters getting to know them and seeing how they tick and sort of forming a bond with them. There are definite villains and the whole piece seems like it’s a horror drama.
There are a few scenes that I absolutely love simply because how they were played out and how they kept the tension and the excitement going. I cannot imagine being Sox as she is standing their watching the coroner slice open her daughters body so that he can begin removing her organs. It was one of the most difficult scenes for me to read and it was very reminiscent of Day of the Dead or when Sox busts into the drug house and the drug dealer attacks them. I enjoyed the buildup to when the team infiltrates Salazar’s base, which ultimately ended in disaster.
The only problem that I saw, that can be an issue, is that most of the movie is a drama and there are barely any zombies until the third act and even before that there were some instances that acted as a ‘tease.’ I enjoyed the characterization and the drama prior to the infiltration but after all… this is a zombie movie and I would like to see some zombies before hand. Some of the scenes carried on a little too long (the autopsy scene) but that’s fine since it does build up tension but there is a possibility that one might find it a little to long.
I’m sure if you’re a diehard zombie fan you’ll enjoy Rise, as did I but even I was waiting for some zombie action. However, this movie does have a lot of dramatic parts in it, a lot of suspense and some good characterizations and it has the potential of being a pretty good zombie film. There are some kinks here and there but those can be ironed out easily. Overall, it wasn’t bad it was decent and I would really enjoy seeing this.
