Patient Zero (2018)

Directed by: Stefan Ruzowitzky | 83 minutes | action, drama | Actors: Natalie Dormer, Stanley Tucci, Matt Smith, Clive Standen, Agyness Deyn, John Bradley, Frederick Schmidt, Colin McFarlane, Pippa Bennett-Warner, James Northcote, Joshua Osei

How many zombie movies can a human handle before saturation hits? A lot, but at some point something has to change to reanimate a dying genre. Danny Boyle brought the trend back in 2002 by running his zombies in ’28 Days Later’ – something that hadn’t happened before. TV series ‘The Walking Dead’ combined drama with dangerous undead and was very strong at it for seasons. In the meantime, saturation has hit and the zombie’s popularity is slowly dying off. Can ‘Patient Zero’ turn the tide?

In ‘Patient Zero’ the future looks bleak. An unprecedented global pandemic has turned the majority of humanity into violent ‘infected’ (read: zombies). A man (Matt Smith) who possesses the gift of communicating with these types leads a small group of survivors in a search for the patient who started it all and a possible cure.

Short answer: no, ‘Patient Zero’ isn’t going to revive the popularity of zombies. This film lacks a face of its own and does nothing new. In addition, there are no characters, but types to see. Smith plays the tapped boy (with a past), while Natalie Dormer wastes her talent playing a faded scientist who has a crush on Smith. Of course there is also a bully of a sergeant around and a quickie in the bathroom under the guise of romance. In short, all genre clichés are neatly checked off.

In short, this movie is downright boring. The lavish, quasi-sensitive music quickly gets on the nerves. ‘Patient Zero’ looks fine, is nicely edited and looks good. The fact remains that this film has nothing to say. That in itself is not an issue, but due to the slow pace of narration and boring characters, this film does not entertain for a moment. That’s a bad thing.