Luke Kenny brings India’s first Zombie film with his indie venture Rise Of The Zombie. Not only does Luke co-direct the film but acts and produces it himself. Even for a small project and its novelty factor the film fails in all departments. It is the story of Luke Kenny who is a recluse wildlife photographer who takes off on his photography trips as and when he pleases. This takes a toll on his relationship with live-in girlfriend (Kirti Kulhari) until one day she walks out on him. He decides to take off on one of his trips to the hills. Like any predictable movie in this genre, bad things await him there. The story is mundane and absolutely no thought is put into it. Once in the woods, the film meanders and gets repetitive. The songs are shoved into the film and have no relevance to the plot. Why does no one come looking for the people that go missing? Why does Luke have sexual memories of Kirti in times when he’s in severe pain is something only the writer will be able to answer. Also in the world of Rise Of The Zombie police or any similar authorities do not exist. After a while you feel scenes are just forced in to the movie to make it feature film length. The movie also ends abruptly with a promise of a sequel. The editing and camera work is amateur. It’s almost as if the crew was making their graduation film. In terms of performances Luke hams away with weak dialogue even in the most important scenes. But one can say he has found his calling as a zombie. Kirti is good but has a badly etched out character that doesn’t have much to do. The make-up and prosthetics used to recreate rotting flesh is up to the mark though. A piece of advice, certain scenes may cause you to retch. Shots of the zombie eating rodents, birds, dogs and insects are plain disgusting. There is nothing chilling or spooky about them. Even if you’re a diehard fan of this genre give this film a miss. This is what you call pure visual assault.
