Redcon-1 *** (2018, Oris Erhuero, Carlos Gallardo, Mark Strange) – Movie Review

Co-writer/ director Chee Keong Cheung’s low-budget British zombie apocalypse movie Redcon-1 (2018) revisits the 28 Days Later territory to considerable advantage. It has its rough edges but it is fast paced, action packed, entertaining and full on for its nearly two hours, delivering very good value, with much imaginative direction, camerawork and editing.

Major General Charles Smith (Euan Macnaughton) sends out a squad of eight Special Forces soldiers is on a mission to battle zombies to rescue scientist Dr Julian Raynes (Robert Goodale) from a UK ruled by the undead. Raynes is supposed to have created the zombiefying virus that has infected and killed millions, but Smith has his own agenda, so we do not know who to trust of believe. Eventually, the surviving squad members find they have a different mission.

Chee Keong Cheung with a Redcon-1 tattooed fan.

Oris Erhuero, Carlos Gallardo and Mark Strange star as Captain Marcus Stanton, Sergeant Frederick Reeves and Lieutenant Frank Perez. Along with the rest of the hard-working cast, they put their backs into making it all work. Actors, director, supporting cast and crew all take it for real and seem to believe in it all.

The cast are Katarina Waters as Sergeant Kira Paige, Mark Strange as Lieutenant Frank Perez, Carlos Gallardo as Sergeant Frederick Reeves, Akira Koieyama as Sergeant Simon Lau, Oris Erhuero as Captain Marcus Stanton, Martyn Ford as Corporal Jacob Gallagher, Joshua Dickinson as Private Perry Bernstein and Michael Sheehan as Lieutenant Rodrigo Gonzalez, Euan Macnaughton as Major General Charles Smith, and Robert Goodale as Dr Julian Raynes.

Redcon-1 is shot in 12 different locations in Scotland (Newtongrange, HM Prison Peterhead, Glasgow and Ayrshire) and England (London and Brownsover) over a period of two years. People in cities across the UK answered casting calls to be extras, as zombies, troops, gang members and survivors – 1,500 of them. English amputee Olivia Story makes her film debut as a zombie, and removed her prosthetic limbs for a scene. She appears with her father.

The UK release was 28 September 2018 and the DVD and BluRay release is 25 February 2019.

Redcon-1 is the winner of Best Thriller 2019 at the National Film Awards.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Movie Review

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