AS INEVITABLY flawed as £45 zombie horror Colin is you have to tip your hat to it in many ways.

The brainchild of wannabe filmmaker Marc Price, it’s a bold, raw and uncompromising addition to the zombie genre that does herald the arrival of a promising new talent.

What’s more, it does bring something new to the genre, unfolding from the perspective of a zombie and offering a somewhat bleak alternative view on humanity as a result.

Alastair Kirton stars as the eponymous Colin, who has been bitten by an assailant and is destined for the same fate as the people he has been seeking to escape.

As humanity deserts him, he is condemned to a lonely existence wondering the streets of London in search of food, and stumbles from one nightmare scenario to the next as his sister makes a desperate attempt to save him.

En route, audiences are confronted with both the zombies’ insatiable quest for flesh, as well as mankind’s often cruel attempts to resist or even exploit the new undead.

Price’s film is loaded with ideas and some smart homages to the likes of George Romero and Danny Boyle. But while undeniably impressive when considering it’s budgetary limitations, it’s not without problems.

Of course, the film often looks like it’s been shot on a micro budget and there are plenty of times when some better editing may have masked the resulting effect. Price’s camera work often leaves you disorientated and in the dark.

Likewise, a lot of the film’s good ideas aren’t fully realised, setting up promising scenarios that go nowhere. Whether this is a budget limitation or a shortcoming in the screenplay isn’t really clear.

At 90 minutes, the film also feels a little overlong and there is a lot of padding.

That said, Price deserves encouragement and support for having the guts and ingenuity to create the movie in the first place and to have turned out such an uncompromising first effort, for this still requires a strong stomach and does chill in places.

Colin is therefore recommended viewing for the horror/zombie brigade that is much, much better than the £45 budget would suggest. Price, meanwhile, is already working on his next film, which makes him very much a director to watch.

Certificate: 18
Running time: 95mins
UK Release Date: October 23, 2009

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