Defiled

The Defiled (2010)

This is a very different kind of movie. There is a plague that wipes out much of humanity, turns some into cannibalistic animals (sort of zombies, but alive), and leaves a few survivors. Now I know that we have all heard of this sort of story before, but this movie follows one of the infected. We are introduced to a family of sorts, lead by Yar. After the rest of his family eats some bad human meat and dies he is left to care for a newborn by himself (yikes the birth scene). As he wanders around he accidentally saves a human woman who starts to care for the child. Yar continues to protect her as they wander some more. Eventually they run into some survivors and some bad things happen.

I want to start this review off by giving the director/writer Julian Grant some props for taking on a project like this. The entire movie is played without any dialogue and has to communicate the story thru the nonverbal acting skills of the cast, the locations they are at, and the visuals caught by the camera work. This is a pretty damn hard to do with piles of cash, but to attempt this with a low budget movie takes a lot of guts. And I have to say the movie manages to be successful for a while.

For the first 30 or 40 minutes I was intrigued by what I was watching and how the story was unfolding. The Defiled does an excellent job moving the plot along without the need for dialogue. But then it seems to run out of steam. After some interesting stuff with the creatures and Yar’s family we then get scene after scene of the main characters walking. Walking thru the woods, along railroad tracks, and thru ruined buildings. Nothing but walking. Even when they stop walking and finally run into “help” the movie takes a predictable turn that was disappointing and surprisingly lacking in creativity.

I know I’m sounding harsh with my review and I don’t mean to sound that way. Like I said for a while the movie was really interesting and had sucked me in. But this is one of those flicks that has a half finished feel to it. They were onto something very cool, but didn’t have enough yet for a feature length movie and clearly had no exit strategy. The Defiled is one of those experiences that is so frustrating because they were so close but jumped in before they were ready.

Now let me mention a couple of nice things about the movie. The cinematography is great and gives The Defiled a unique look. Shooting in black and white isn’t easy and calls for a different skill set then shooting in color. This means that most modern filmmakers can’t handle it and have no experience working this way. But this was a perfect choice for this movie. I also think that the lead actor that plays Yar, Brian Shaw, is really quite good. He manages to create a memorable character, show some emotions, and become sympathetic without any dialogue. This is an outstanding job.

As much as I like what the filmmakers and cast were trying to accomplish I just can’t recommend The Defiled. There just isn’t enough here and I think that most fans will be turned off by the pacing and ending.

2 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer