Uncontained infects SCREAMBOX exclusively on March 11. A mysterious drifter struggles to protect abandoned children from an infection that turns people into a feral-like state.

It’s been over twenty years since the zombie film experienced its revival in the early 2000’s with outings like 28 Days Later, Dawn Of The Dead, and Shaun Of The Dead. Leading up to the massive success of those entries, the living dead horror subgenre had been dormant for decades.

After those came out and blew up, we of course got The Walking Dead, as well as hundreds of other zombie-based shows, movies, comics, and novels like World War Z. It was a full-on renaissance for the undead brain eaters!

In the decades since this revival, we have seen it all. Slow zombies and fast zombies. Scary zombies and funny zombies and lovelorn zombies. The beasts got played out and became tired again. But they never went all the way away. Every year, you could count on a few more entries into the history of the living dead.

This brings us to 2025, and Screambox’s new outing, Uncontained. This zombie-centric tale centers on a traveler coming across an extravagant house in the woods. Residing in the house, he finds two very young children. There is Brooke, the sister who is only two years old, and her older brother Jack.

While Brooke is very much a small child, Jack has taken the defense of his home very seriously. He has set traps and turned a Nerf gun into a tranquilizer dart gun. He is even able to subdue the traveler when they first meet.

When the man awakens, he and Jack strike up a deal. The former will help Jack fix problems around the home, and then Jack will give him back his weapons and let him go on his way.

As they start working together, they begin to grow fond of each other. But each one is hiding a secret. Will they be able to defend the abode from both the beasts out in the wild and other threats this world has created?

TWO UPS AND TWO DOWNS

+ The overall filmmaking is pretty impressive here. There are good shots and some great framing throughout this one. It looks really crisp and well made. Writer and director Morley Nelson definitely has an eye for his shots. Through the usage of both grounded cams and drones, there are plenty of great visuals in Uncontained.

The editing, the score, the camerawork… it’s all at a high level for a low-budget independent film, and it makes me wonder what Nelson could achieve if this succeeds and he is given a bigger budget for his upcoming projects.

+ The story is interesting. There’s a bit of the old Walking Dead “the REAL enemy is inhumanity” thing going on here, but past that, you’ve got a more creative take on the zombie lore.

The creatures here–they are never referred to with the Z-word–are exactly what you think of when you think of that word: ferocious and mindless and bitey. But there is a difference. A segment of the population has a sort of immunity to the disease where they can change back-and-forth from their mindless form to their regular self. This, obviously, impacts the movie heavily.

It’s a nice touch that makes the movie worth watching a little more than your typical zombie fare!

– The acting is fine, but nothing special. The performances aren’t terrible, but they do not really draw you into the movie, either. Part of that comes down to the typical problem with very young actors. I’m not here to call out young talent that is still honing their craft, but we all know that child performers are very hit or miss.

The adults are not miles ahead of the kids, either, unfortunately. There is some stunted delivery all across the film. The leads don’t exactly have exemplary chemistry. It’s all just adequate. Maybe even a little less than.

– There are some weird plot twists with the sister character, Brooke, that don’t really amount to much and just make late aspects of the flick confusing. I don’t want to go too much into anything that would result in spoilers, but the screenplay makes some choices with her character in the second and third acts that just don’t fit in with… anything else going on, really.

OVERALL

The technical crafting of Uncontained is exceedingly well done. Morley Nelson is at the top of his game on this one. It’s unfortunate that the writing and acting aren’t quite up there on the same level. Still, I dug Uncontained. It’s interesting enough to keep you pulled in across its entire runtime.