Detained DVD

Detained DVD

Review written by DJBenz

Written by Jason Tammemägi

Directed by Jason Tammemägi

Runtime - 15 Minutes

Unrated

The Cast

Ciaran O'Brian - Thomas Doyle
Matthew Darragh - Adult Doyle
Ben Morris - Mark
Jarlath Conroy - McAlester
Brendan Morrisey - Caretaker

The Story

Normally a model student, Thomas Doyle finds himself in detention under the watchful eye of Mr McAlester. When a latecomer arrives at the door of the detention room, McAlester steps back in abject horror as the student he expects to find there is instead a blood soaked zombie.

Doyle manages to escape the room and drag his best friend Mark with him. But there's a problem. Mark has been bitten - and every horror fan knows the fate of someone on the receiving end of a zombie bite.

Thomas Doyle has picked a bad day to get into trouble.

With his friend slowly dying, and only a torch for protection, Doyle must escape from the school via the darkened hallways, which are teeming with flesh eating zombies. Can he make it out alive?

And, if he does, will it be to a world worth living in?

Thoughts

For the second time in as many months I've been considerably impressed by a low budget movie from my own country. First off, from England, was Pat Higgins' feature length TrashHouse, and now comes Jason Tammemägi's zombie short filmed on location in Ireland.

Tammemägi cut his directorial teeth on several short movies and educational features, some of which have won critical acclaim, but Detained marks his first foray into the horror genre.

Detained is, quite simply, stunning. Like a sprint it takes off just after Mr McAlester's monologue on the perils of apathy. It doesn't let up until the conclusion — which spins an interesting twist on the preceeding events. It is packed with impressive editing and visual effects, and runs almost like a promo for a forthcoming zombie epic. If Romero decided to make School of the Dead, this could very well be the frontrunner.

The miniscule cast was selected from an Irish theatre school and all the young cast show incredible competence in their craft, especially Ciaran O'Brian, who plays the lead role of Thomas Doyle.

But, perhaps the biggest catch for Tammemägi was casting the role of McAlester to Jarlath Conroy, better known as McDermott from George Romero's Day of the Dead. His involvement in the project ensures interest from genre fans, plus a solid performance from the Irish actor.

Drawing on influences such as Japanese horror movies and the Silent Hill video games, Jason Tammemägi has produced a short which is slick, suspenseful and respectful to its peers without being derivative. He shot the movie as a promotional tool to garner interest for a larger, feature length project. Genre fans should keep their fingers crossed that it happens.

And soon.

Audio, Video and Special Features

Not graded, as this is a screener disc. The picture is presented in a 1.85:1 (16:9) aspect ratio and is clear and well defined, even though most of the movie takes place by torchlight in the corridors of the school. The music and sound effects, presented in a DD 2.0 soudtrack, add an eerie tension to Doyle's passage to the outside world.

Grade

Movie - *****/***** A fantastic zombie debut for this young director.

Video - n/a

Sound - n/a

Special Features - n/a

Overall - *****/***** More please.