Help support TMP


Night Zero


Runtime
81 minutes
Type
Color
Genres
horror, sci-fi, thriller

Rate This Movie

If you have read this movie, please rate it from 1 (low) to 10 (high).

TMP Members can rate this movie. Would you like to be a member?


Back to MOVIES FOR WARGAMERS


Areas of Interest

Modern
Science Fiction

Featured Hobby News Article


Featured Link


Featured Ruleset


Featured Showcase Article

Starship Storage Stands

Personal logo Editor in Chief Bill The Editor of TMP Fezian searches for a better way to store his starships.


Featured Workbench Article


Featured Profile Article

Dung Gate

For the time being, the last in our series of articles on the gates of Old Jerusalem.


Current Poll


Featured Movie Review


This entry created 26 June 2019. Last revised on 26 June 2019.

2,894 hits since 18 Oct 2019
©1994-2024 Bill Armintrout
Comments or corrections?


TMP logo

Membership

Please sign in to your membership account, or, if you are not yet a member, please sign up for your free membership account.

Night Zero

Rating: gold star gold star gold star gold star gold star no star no star no star no star no star (5.00)

Apparently there's an indie film group in Baltimore that puts out interesting little movies, and this is one of their latest.

It seems to be getting a lot of hate from zombie movie fans, because it doesn't follow the cliche of lots of blood, beautiful stars, and brains brains brains.

Ignore the back cover copy, because whoever wrote it got it all wrong. Either that, or I missed something pretty significant…

The movie gets off to a slow start as the script establishes the basic relationships. Three couples meet for a dinner party to say goodbye to their hosts, who are relocating for a new job. So we've got the successful guy transferring to a new job, his wife who just discovered she's pregnant, another couple who have just decided to divorce because she thinks he's cheating with his ex, and another couple who seem nice enough but don't get much script time.

Then there's a scream outside. Two of the men go outside to investigate. Dramatic pause. They burst back into the home assisting an injured policeman, pursued by several violent people. Brief melee ensues.

Turns out there's a refinery fire north of the city. Or maybe that's a cover story. There's lots of smoke or mist or clouds. People who encounter the smoke become violent. (Zombies…)

So the couples barricade themselves into the home. They find an intruder and beat him up, only to discover he's just a frightened scientist who can explain more about what's happening. (Aliens…)

They find a radio and make contact with the authorities. An armed patrol comes by, but moves on after promising help is coming. The scientist warns they cannot survive in the house because the gas will penetrate sooner or later. They have only one gas mask (from the cop) and there are eight survivors in the house…

The action (finally?) gets going at this point, soon they are down to the last three, and they must leave the house to survive… and we get some spooky scenes in downtown, and a dark ending.

I thought the movie wasn't bad. You see how different characters deal with the unknown, and several of the unknown actors are quite good. It's a character-driven plot.

Most of the special effects (such as the pics on the DVD cover) are from 'news reports' or quick inserts as the scientist explains what's happening. There's really no special effects in the main plot itself.

The zombie concept here would be interesting to put into a wargame context. The idea is that as the gas affects people, they proceed through certain stages – starting with a violent paranoid stage, when (for example) a wife might go into a rage and kill her husband, but still protect her daughter. Then there's the angry, 'attack anything' stage, but they will retreat if you resist hard enough.

The main problem with wargaming this particular plot is that most of the movie takes place inside one home. With wargames, it's often hard to just fit the figures into the same room, let alone fight a battle. Wargaming does outdoors better than indoors.

If you're lucky, you can still find this in the discount bin at Walmart.