Phase 7 – DVD Review

The Movie:

Horror-comedies are probably the hardest sub-genre to do. For a straight up horror, you need to have some things in there to scare people, and for comedy you need to just make people laugh. Obviously, both genres are subject to each person’s feelings. Some things scare some that don’t scare others. Some laugh at things while others sit stone faced. To cross the two, you need to be careful, and there have only been a few really great horror comedies over the years. For the recent surge of horror-comedies, the measuring stick seems to be the great film Shaun of the Dead. Bloody-Disgusting, one of the leading horror websites has decided to put their hat into DVD distribution. The horror comedy Phase 7 from Argentina is their foray into this sub-genre.

Phase 7 tells the story of Coco (Daniel Hendler) and his wife, Pipi (Jazmin Stuart) who have recently moved to a new apartment complex. Within this complex is an interesting and wide array of neighbors. One day when Coco and Pipi come home from food shopping, they are told that one member of each apartment must go down to the lobby for a meeting. Once every apartment is represented, they are told that the building is being quarantined due to a virus outbreak. They aren’t told much about this virus and learn everything from news reports on the television. From what’s being reported, the virus is airborne and it causes the person to go mad. One of Coco’s neighbors happens to have a quarantine suit that he gives to Coco, as well as supplies and weapons. Before we know it, another neighbor shows signs of being infected. Zanutto (played by legendary Spanish actor Federico Luppi) goes around killing other neighbors and tries to kill Coco and his wife.

Things escalate, people get killed, get infected and some survive. If none of this sounds funny, then you’re on the right track. The back of the DVD box bills the movie as Shaun of the Dead meets [REC]. I’d say it’s half right. This movie seems to borrow heavily from [REC] as it can almost be a prequel. The Shaun of the Dead comparison is totally off base as there isn’t one laugh to be had. There is some good tension built and the acting is surprisingly good, especially from Luppi and  Hendler. Outside of that, there really isn’t a whole lot to the movie. Coco and his neighbor, Horacio, who gave Coco the supplies, go to other apartments to raid them of food and supplies. Coco leaves Pipi, who is pregnant, alone for long periods of time, Coco and Horacio take their suits and gas masks off at various times to nothing happening, even with an airborne virus.

The only thing funny about the movie is how bad it is at times. The pace is ok since it’s not overly long, but I found myself looking at the clock to see how much time was left towards the end of the movie. The movie is good enough to check out as a rental, but I wouldn’t recommend it much more than that.

Audio/Video:

The video is great. It looks good and slick. Nothing to complain about here. The audio is great as well. You can hear everything perfectly.

The Extras:

Deleted Scenes: There are 2 deleted scenes and one extended scene. None add anything to the movie and they are not in the movie for good reason.

Trailers: Trailers for other movies to be released via Bloody-Disgusting

The Movie Rating:

The DVD Rating: