Patient Zero

Directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky, Patient Zero unfolds in a post-apocalyptic landscape where a mutated strain of rabies has transformed more than 7 billion people into, essentially, zombies – with the narrative following a team of survivors, including Matt Smith’s Morgan and Natalie Dormer’s Gina, as they attempt to locate the title figure in an effort at manufacturing a cure. It’s a fairly intriguing spin on a well-worn scenario that is, at the outset, employed to better-than-anticipated effect, as filmmaker Ruzowitzky, working from Mike Le’s screenplay, does an effective job of setting up the mostly-underground atmosphere and assortment of relatively compelling characters – with, in terms of the latter, Stanley Tucci’s turn as an eloquent zombie certainly standing as an obvious highlight within the proceedings. There’s little doubt, then, that Patient Zero‘s watchable vibe takes a rather palpable hit as it enters its padded-out, spinning-its-wheels midsection, as Le’s script devotes far too much time to the initially-interesting-but-eventually-tedious conversations between Smith and Tucci’s respective figures (ie it eventually just feels as though the two are talking in circles). By the time the action-heavy third act rolls around, Patient Zero has ultimately squandered an admittedly innovative setup to become just another forgettable direct-to-streaming horror release.

** out of ****