Reviewed by Rhianna Pratchett
Stars Nick Damici, Kim Blair, Antone Pagan, Bo Corre | Written by Jim Mickle & Nick Damici
UK certification 18 | UK RRP £12.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 84 minutes | Directed by Jim Mickle
It’s a little unclear why the UK felt the need to add Zombie Virus on to the (unusually simple) US title of Mulberry Street. Not only does it give it a vaguely, cutesy ring – like something delivered with the milk and morning paper – it’s also rather inaccurate. Not that explaining that the zombie virus is actually a rat-carried plague turning people into, well... rats, makes it sound any better. But nevertheless this is, in fact, one of the best low-budget horrors to emerge for a long time.
The events unfold in and around a recently condemned tower block on the aforementioned Mulberry Street, a low-rent area of Manhattan. This is where ex-boxer, Clutch (Damici, also co-writer on the movie) and a raggle-taggle group of residents are awaiting the return of his daughter, Casey (Blair) - a soldier on her way back from Iraq. For largely unexplained reasons, the local rodent population take it upon themselves to start attacking humans, thus releasing a disease that morphs them into killer rats.
It does sound a little Doctor Who, but it’s pretty well done. The rat beasts have all the normal characteristics of your modern 28 Days Later-style zombie, but with nicely deformed facial features and the ability to dig, climb and move inside walls - Thus giving them a whole new level of nastiness. The characters are believable and weirdly endearing, and the whole setting conjures up grimy, claustrophobia, mixed in with Left for Dead. The movie was rumoured to have been made around the £60k mark and there are plenty of behind-the-scenes extras that will undoubtably prove essential viewing for those seeking to make their gore go that extra mile.
Zombie Virus on Mulberry Street proves that even though its stars are dead, the genre is still very much alive and kicking.
EXTRAS ** Two deleted scenes, six short behind-the-scenes featurettes, and the trailer.