Starring: Alastair Kirton, Daisy Aitkens
Written & Directed By: Marc Price
Grade: B

After a good 40 years of zombie films all following the Romero formula, in the past few years we have gotten a few more creative zombie films that embrace thinking outside of the box to bring something completely new to the table. Films like Fido, Deadgirl, and now Colin have dared to stray away from what’s commonly accepted in the zombie sub-genre of horror. Colin is a zombie film told completely from the point-of-view of the zombie. This is definitely something challenging to do as zombies don’t typically talk, making it much harder to tell a feature length story of what they are experiencing. Colin manages to do it and offers a new insight on the typically one-noted undead creatures.

We witness our main character, Colin (Kirton), as he transitions to a normal human in to a flesh eating zombie. One interesting thing about this transition is he doesn’t let go 100% of his human instincts while still having a far more animalistic nature that has taken hold of him. Colin really hit’s the braindead nature of zombies. It’s not that the capabilities aren’t there, it’s simply that their previous life and everything they’ve known has been wiped clean. Colin struggles with simple things that he used to do without thinking. He struggles hours upon hours trying to get from one side of the door to the other, having lost both the knowledge and basic motor functions to do something as simple as open a door.

Once Colin has managed to get out in the world, it’s a post-apocalyptic world, one that is shattering and disturbing even to him as a zombie. Colin does manage to find his family who are still desperate to find a way to survive. They are thrilled to find a long lost loved one. Of course, he is not the same person they lost. Colin’s sister, Linda (Aitkens), is desperate to find her brother that she knows is still in there deep down. Colin has no idea who any of these people are, but there still seems to be something there, a familiarity so vague, but one that helps numb the monster inside of him attack those that he once held so dearly.

Colin is an extremely emotionally powered zombie film. It really develops the experience in being a zombie, being detached from ones human life, and the inability to truly let go of a loved one, even if they have been taken over by death and blood-ridden instincts. There is a certain tragedy there and it’s a bold move and something very different for a zombie film, especially since this isn’t just a moment or two of emotion shining through a zombie, it’s what powers the film and makes it so interesting.

I really appreciated that the emotion involved doesn’t take away from what this is; a zombie film. Colin is still a brutal, monstrous creature, who when it comes down to it acts purely on instinct. Most of the time these instincts are far from pretty. There is still plenty of bloodshed; severed body parts, an abundance of blood and guts, and tasty intestines. When the zombies kill, it is for survival and based on that dark instinct inside of them, but it’s also to find familiarity with the world and objects that were once part of their life. Colin really hits that sweet spot between vile and ruthless carnage and the emotional experience of just what becoming a zombie could do to an individual and their mindset.