Island Escape

A research facility on a northern Canadian island had an accident. The company CEO is searching for his missing daughter. A group of mercenaries gets recruited for the rescue mission. They find a place under strange influence and they battle monster versions of themselves.

There is a good idea here somewhere. It just needs a bit more work. More than anything, this needs better action and better effects. They could use more zombie monsters in an epic final battle. I get the attempt of doing the boat, but it looks too weak for the finale. The actors are nobody special indie amateurs. In the end, this is nothing more than a poor B-movie.

Although some reviewers on here are complaining about the "convoluted" time warp story line, I really didn't have any trouble following it.

Sure at the beginning you're wondering what exactly is going on, however that's part of the intrigue of the movie. It pretty quickly becomes apparent how the time warp system works and what the perils are.

The acting is good overall, the characters are well written and sympathetic, and the practical effects are really good. The monsters in particular are quite scary and there were a couple good jump scares as well.

If you're a fan of mid budget horror movies, I would highly recommend it.

When the daughter of an ultra-rich CEO is taken hostage at an experimental research facility, on a remote island.

A ragtag team of blue collar mercenaries are compiled to get her back.

However...little do they suspect what they'll be up against...

...Zombies. It's zombies.

The whole thing is a low budget action-horror-sci-fi film, featuring some middle brow acting, decent practical effects, and- what seems like- a pretty straight forward storyline (at least at first).

However, it's mostly just a group of people running around the woods with guns.

With an incredibly bizarre sci-fi angle spun in.

Where "the island resets itself every 3 days".

Which apparently means that new versions of themselves will come to the island every three days...while everyone left on the island past the three day point will turn into zombies.

Meaning that they are effectively caught in a neverending timeloop, fighting against zombified versions of themselves.

So...they must escape the island within that three day window...or accept their zombie fate.

That is, if they aren't killed by the island's "self destruction sequence", which the company behind the research facility claims they have initiated.

It's all kind of weird.

And hard to follow.

As it doesn't make a whole lot of logical sense.

Especially when the bit about traveling back through time- and going through wormholes- comes into play.

It's hard not to get lost in the foray.

So all you can do is try to roll with it.

Even if you don't understand exactly what is going on.

Perhaps it's all just over my head.

But I don't think so.

The complexity of it all is certainly intriguing.

But, in reality, it's just a poorly thought out, and forcibly constructed, storyline.

Turning what seemed like a straight forward zombie island escape, into a confounding sci-fi conundrum.

3 out of 10 (for trying).

The storyline in this time warp story is so convoluted that it doubles and triples back on itself leading to an ending that is completely nonsense!

The characters are pretty good and flushed out to a good degree, so that you get comfortable with them and by mid movies your are sympathizing with their plight and rooting for them, but even the relationships get so intertwined with the storyline that a good deal of even that aspect becomes fuzzy.

The subplot of the romantic aspect of the story is really bad and since the female lead bears a striking resemblance to "Mr. Bean" the few romantic scenes are hilarious. The female lead is a disaster - too scrawny to be the rough and ready mercenary type and too boyish and homely to add to a romantic subplot!

The ending makes you scratch your head and say "what the hell" to yourself as the credits roll!!!

For those that enjoy low budget flicks this isn't the worst one. The story is decent, it's a sci fi horror action movie.

The movie goes along at a decent pace which is the only thing working for it, the budget went to the makeup department which is done quite good for the "monsters" and the rest probably for the main actors gym and protein powder as we do get a shirtless scene.

I'm giving it 5 stars because the camera work is okay and it's all well shot with good lighting which is something so many low budget movies fail at. Along with solid story elements and the fact it kept my attention enough for me to finish it.