An AWOL soldier with PTSD goes into hiding along with his brother and a few friends. They retreat into a rural farm area unaware that the outside world has ceased to function. On their way back to civilization, his brother is attacked by an infected farmer. He quickly morphs into a rabid animal and lives for exactly three hours. Realizing they are in grave danger, they head back to the forest trying to outlive the legions of the infected.
The description above of Jason Mills’ new film 3 Hours till Dead is the official plot synopsis. However only about a quarter of that description is this film. When the film opens Joe (Vladimir Zaric) is camping with his brother Stew (Hans Potter) and best friend Mikey (Chris Walters). Also with them are Joe’s and Mikey’s girlfriends Sonya (Marissa Crockett) & Kyly (Amy Muc.) They’ve been out there for two weeks and now it’s time to go home. Joe is AWOL but none of them knows this except for Stew. It’s mentioned that Joe has something to tell them but none of them seem too concerned about his “secret.” When Stew spills the beans it really has no effect on the film. The fact that he’s AWOL means absolutely nothing.
3 Hours till Dead introduces a new variation to the zombie mythos. Once people are resurrected they are so for only 3 hours. They then return to a lifeless state. However, given the single location and limited characters the film really has no way to use this new wrinkle in any kind of effective way. In fact we only ever see one of these “passers” expire. Now that I think about it, I don’t recall how they know the time before the “passers” re-die. Maybe they just read the official synopsis.
The idea of the “passers” (people must really running out words to use instead of zombie) only being reanimated for 3 hours has potential in a bigger film. But part of the problem here is that the time period covered in the film looks to be less than three hours in total. In a story that takes place over a couple of days you could really do something with this idea. Outside of the 3 hour thing, there’s not much else new in the film. The zombie/farm story and location bares a similarity to Night of the Living Dead but without any that film’s dramatic tension.
I don’t want to say that I didn’t enjoy the film at all. With a couple of exceptions, the performances were pretty decent; the best coming from Zaric and Walters. Additionally, for a low budget film, the makeup is very well done . What’s here feels like bloated versions of the opening two scenes of what could have been a pretty good zombie film. Unfortunately 3 Hours till Dead is just a wasted opportunity.
