Watching pandemic films might not be the best idea during the times we are living in and Necropath proves it. While something is happening in a city where little information is given, two families and trying to survive. One is a mother and her daughter escaping from the living dead, the other family is just there–they poorly act like they know each other. As if running for your life from creatures stalking the night in search of human flesh weren’t enough, a demented junkie is assaulting people in the midst of a biological infection (or at least that seems to be the reason they turn into zombies). It depends on the survival instincts of each family to see who they can escape from–although there seems to be no way out for anyone.

Necropath is the compilation of three short films, and I have to give credit to it for turning them into a full length. The editing is so smooth that you can’t even recognize when each short starts or even ends–it could’ve fooled me into thinking that it was all the same if I hadn’t done some research on the origins of this production. I had to watch it a second time with this new information in mind to realize that there are a lot of decoys that work mostly as the representation for each character and their storylines–funny thing is that this probably was done to differentiate each short but when it’s put together like this, it does wonders to setting of each. As I said, the editing is excellent for the subdued pace it carries.

The plot is basic but it lacks reasons to the why and how of the storyline. The setting, well, considering it’s a low-budget film produced mostly in an empty warehouse and urban streets, it’s as natural as water running through a stream. What is never seen to be natural is the performance of the cast that is supposedly healthy and free of contagion–the movements of the infected extras seem more on point than the film’s cold-open.

Now, when it comes to the storyline, it’s bad. Even when the plot is nothing new to the genre, it’s just plain. There seems to be very little dialogue and when it comes to the characters speaking some lines, it becomes dreadful as it’s very formulaic and dull. It could be that the lack of character development is to blame but each character represents a stereotype so there shouldn’t be barriers between their emotions and their actions— and still there are more walls in it than inside the warehouse where most of the film takes place.

Necropath is cringy but not for the right reasons. It gives you what you may expect of an apocalyptic world-ending zombie-infested film but it becomes lazy after the first story with no motive for the characters to keep moving on.

3 OUT OF 10 MONEYBAGS