Red Con-1  ★★

BUYER beware…‘A cross between The Raid and 28 Days Later’, thunders one poster review for Red Con-1.

I would definitely see that film, but this 2018 British action/horror effort isn’t it.

The film’s low budget isn’t the problem; when the action and gore kick in they’re more than serviceable.

But any film that channels epic Indonesian actioner The Raid better have a ton of action.

Unfortunately, Red Con-1 not only doesn’t have near enough action, it also ends up taking itself way too seriously, cringingly climaxing with badly misjudged slow-motion, emotional moments to a soaring musical score.

The other key problem is the script. In trying to set itself apart from the rest of the zombie film herd, it depicts walking dead who have learned to work together and communicate in rudimentary fashion and perform a range of basic human functions, including shooting guns.

Again, another case of bad judgement. Nobody wants to see smart zombies for goodness sake; that’s just stupid.

The script does provide some kind of reason in that the smart zombies were actually created by the military as part of a secret experiment to build better soldiers but ended up going rogue and causing a sweeping virus to devastate the country.

But this film is pretty much a bust all round. While the photography is ok, the editing is ragged and the script doesn’t provide any strong character development for the actors, most of whom are average at best anyway.

The only time the film rises above a low bar is when it switches to full frenetic action mode. This is where it should have remained.