Horror Movie Review: Inmate Zero (2019)

Inmate Zero aka Patients of a Saint is an infection horror movie set in a ‘death row’ prison on a small isolated island. Directed by Russell Owen, who co-wrote the story with Matthew J. Gunn, it stars Jess Chanliau, Raymond Bethley, Jane Garda, Jennifer Joseph, and Philip McGinley.

Stone (Chanliau) is an ex-special forces solider who is accused of murdering an important man and his family. A crime that the film will make sure we know she didn’t commit because she is the lead and we’re supposed to like her. Which is about as much effort as the movie makes in doing so, and it doesn’t work. No fault of the actor who does a solid job even if she spends a lot of it being a bit… useless.

Anyway, she doesn’t get along with a lot of the other prisoners, who are all awaiting their execution, and one incident sees her hospitalised. It’s here that she sees another inmate brought in, seemingly suffering from an infection. Something that spreads quickly, causing him to go feral, and start infecting the rest of the prison.

The surviving guards and prisoners have no choice but to team up to try and survive, find a way out of the prison, and off the island.

Inmate Zero has a lot of positives and they make it a worthwhile watch, even if the overall infection and survival story is familiar. It’s shot really nicely, making some scenes extremely tense and horror-driven. It’s acted really well, with a wide array of characters doing different things to make them stand out, and the infected are frightening. A mix of the Dawn of the Dead remake’s zombies and 28 Days Later’s rage victims.

Unfortunately, it’s also quite dull at times as it gets bogged down with the characters staying in one room and not really saying much. These moments should be used for character development but that rarely happens. It’s disappointing to see the movie splutter and cough as it leads to an eventual stall. This also means some of the less obvious issues start to become more prevalent.

Issues like the lack of likability for the main character. The questions that are never answered around the experiments and subsequent infection. Issues like the prison seemingly being open so the infected can move around freely, and subplots surrounding poorly thought-out alliances, and attempts to rehabilitate characters that are on death row for a reason.

Far too many to ignore and issues that most will notice as they make their way through the movie, thus damaging the overall quality of it.