Fase 7 (2011)

The difference from usual zombie movies is that here you don't have anymore the horror part = in this case "the infection" leads shortly to "(cough) .. I think I'm sick .. (double cough) .. I've seen flying U45XWS9C6QT2 .. MMmmm... me dizzy .. (triple cough) .. sAkJDS9mas .. bye bye, cruel world" without any other violent manifestations caused specifically by the disease. For who has already watched "Rec" (or "Rec 2" .. or "Quarantine" which is the U.S. remake), "Fase 7" is pretty easy to describe. It's an Argentinian production (so, also in Spanish to make it even more similar) in which you have pretty much the same "setup" - let's say at least 90% of it = a block of flats set in quarantine due to a virus (but a global one this time, not only in the building). So eventually it turns into that kind of zombie movie ... but without the zombies :). Normally the question comes (especially for horror lovers), so.. where's the fun then ?

Well, the thing is that "Fase 7" is not a horror. Or at most it could be qualified as a "social horror". Meaning that you'll get violent manifestations eventually. However, as said these aren't caused by the "zombification" itself, but by the psychological impact of the crisis situation on the approximately five neighbors (solo or family) who are living in the building. Which makes the movie to end up being somewhere at the border between a thriller and a dark comedy. The last part could start by simply describing the building cohabitants. First, we have the main characters - which are a young couple, who recently moved at the upper floor. He is pretty much a typical/usual/normal guy who was actually dreaming on moving far from civilization somewhere in the mountains, fact that coming from him is considered as a big joke by her - who is pregnant in the 7th month and affirming that he won't survive a week without technology. Their closest neighbor living at the same floor is an ex life insurance agent who apparently now has as main hobby ... transforming his SUV into an armored one (just to start with ...). Probably that's one of the reasons, besides the conspiracy theory paranoia, for which his wife left him alone with a young daughter of about 7-8 years old. Somewhere at a floor below, an old man lives alone. He seems to be the nicest/"welcome here" guy in the building being apparently a gentile inoffensive individual who's pretty much the only one trying to be friendly with the new arrived couple. At the lower levels we have two other guys with some family, passed through the middle age, and seemingly good friends despite the choleric character of one and the mild calmness of the other. Well, that's the main "configuration" of people who during the movie simply manage to transform the building into a veritable battlefront. "The War" starts mostly due to the actions of the two guys from the inferior levels who are strongly decided to move the old man from the middle floor into .. a quarantine in the quarantine invoking that he's sick. Obviously, the incoming lack of food, medication, etc (the classic element in this genre) has its impact in all of this and what's next. And in what's next we see how our "peaceful" guy from the upper floor gets drawn into a pretty tense situation while desperately trying to keep his wife unknowingly of the hell went loose among the other inhabitants, two steps away, just on the buildings staircase.

For me, the best part of the movie is the dark humor, pretty stylish (= "hidden" basically behind the action) about which I'm not going to say more and just leave it as a full surprise. Also as a surprise (at least a partial one) comes the end of the movie = who survives. After all that's the main theme, more or less serious - "surviving your neighbors" - the interesting part being that, incredibly, this proves to be a bit more difficult than surviving the epidemic outside the building. I won't get today into the technical part of the film, because I'm already writing on a hurry - but at least I should just point out the score (u can hear some in the trailer). Overall, it's a movie that can be (sort of ..) fun to watch but in which you also have sufficient scenes that may give you more food for thought.

Rating: 4 out of 5