The Vanguard

Introduction

2015 - the world is in chaos. The last known oil fields have been lost to a global war, over-population has reached critical levels, food and water is scarce. Anarchy prevails. Mankind is on the verge of a new Dark Age.

During the upheaval, one Corporation has emerged to become more powerful than any government. Its base of operations is a fortified city known as the Red Zone. As the outside world bums, the Corporation implements a depopulation program to cull the human race.

The scientists tasked with this heinous act revolt. The drug they are instructed to develop should pacify and then slowly kill; but instead, the scientists turn mankind into something beyond their worst fears.

Out of this darkness a new species has arisen. They are dominant and savage and their number far exceeds what remains of mankind.

For the few survivors lost to the wilderness, they are known only as: Biosyns.



Max is a deaf-mute survivalist, living on his wits in a forest amongst the zombie-like Biosyns. To finish the cull, The Corporation send their private army of genetically-altered Trackers to wipe out the Biosyns, but one Tracker, Jamal, is captured by Max and divulges that he is part of a secret group ordered to kill him.

Once Jamal realises Max's blood may be the antidote to the Biosyn plague, he has a change of heart and joins the resistance.

Video

The Vanguard is very stylishly shot, with a strange and almost hallucinatory colour palette that alters throughout the film. Clearly digitally shot and very sharp despite some problems with moiré, this is a visually interesting film.

Audio

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is clear, with good use of the surrounds to create atmosphere. HoH subtitles are available in English.

Extra Features

Just seven deleted/extended scenes and some behind the scenes footage, which isn't particularly illuminating as it is unstructured and mostly consists of b-roll footage; I would have liked to hear from Matthew Hope, either as an interview or a commentary.

Conclusion

This is Matthew Hope's feature debut and was obviously made on a small budget and with an inexperienced cast - some of the acting is a little ropey - but he succeeds in making an intelligent and interesting film. Hope avoids the pitfalls of tackling two genres at the same time, this post-apocalyptic zombie film could have been tiresome and a chore to watch (e.g. I Am Legend) but I liked it.

The film isn't particularly narratively strong and, initially, is a bit hard to figure out exactly who is doing what and why but the visual style and ambition of the writer/director are evident and even evoke Ryuhei Kitamura's Versus.

This is well worth a watch, probably more as a rental than a purchase, and it will be interesting to see what Matthew Hope comes up with next.