State of Emergency starts off strong. A man (Jim) and his wife fleeing until her injuries make them pause. Jim watches as his wife passes away. He’s in shock. Something horrible is happening, and while he knows he needs to hole up, he doesn’t yet know how bad it is.
Jim finds a barn, and after pulling his dead wife into a stall, Jim proceeds to explore, only to hear something moving somewhere. He thinks everything is okay when he sees a cat, but the relief is short lived. When he returns to the main hallway he sees muddy foot prints.
There are a few things I really liked about State of Emergency. One of them was that they never pulled the “wife” card. It would have been expected, and would have made the movie less enjoyable for me. The other was the quality of Jim’s character, and the suspense around surviving as he comes to grips with a world with new dangers, and new rules.
This is not a zombie hordes movie. This is a zombie suspense movie with just a few zombies that drive the story, and that part well well done. The honest truth is that until we meet the 2nd group of survivors that Jim pairs up with, the movie was on its way to getting a score in the 90’s.
What happened? The acting once Jim meets the second group of survivors goes down hill fast. Scott (played by Scot Lilly) was really rough around the edges. I’m guessing this was really early in his career and he didn’t have much screen time before this? His scenes really feel like he reading cue cards above the cameraman’s head.
How much did that bad acting hurt the movie? Well, it was still enjoyable and I watched it until the end, and actually liked it. The story was well written and the characters themselves were well rounded, which earned State of Emergency a 73/100.
| Review | Year | Score | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zombieland | 2010 | 100 | Comedy / Action |
| Train To Busan | 2016 | 100 | Action / Infection |
| 28 Days Later | 2002 | 100 | Action / Infection |
| Serenity | 2005 | 99 | Action / Sci-Fi |
| Flesh And Blood | 2018 | 99 | Action / Infection |
| The Girl With All The Gifts | 2016 | 95 | Action / Infection |
| Rampant | 2018 | 91 | Action / Infection / Mid Evil |
| Day of the Dead | 2008 | 90 | Action / Infection |
| Night of the Comet | 1984 | 85 | Comedy / Action |
| The Return of the Living Dead | 1985 | 85 | Comedy / Action |
| Zombieland: Double Tap | 2019 | 83 | Comedy / Action |
| Shaun Of The Dead | 2004 | 81 | Comedy / Action |
| 28 Weeks Later | 2007 | 80 | Action / Infection |
| I Am Legend (2007) | 2007 | 80 | Action / Infection |
| Overlord | 2018 | 79 | Action / Horror |
| Plan Z | 2016 | 78 | Action / Infection |
| The Dead | 2010 | 76 | Action / Infection |
| Freaks of Nature | 2015 | 76 | Comedy / Action |
| Here Alone | 2016 | 75 | Suspense / Infection |
| Shed of the Dead | 2019 | 74 | Comedy / Action |
| State of Emergency | 2011 | 73 | Action / Infection |
| Dance of the Dead | 2008 | 72 | Comedy / Action |
| The Rezort | 2015 | 72 | Action / Infection |
| Daylight's End | 2016 | 71 | Action / Infection |
| For A Few Zombies More | 2015 | 70 | Action / Infection |
| Zombie Night | 2013 | 70 | Action / Infection |
| Dead Rising: Watchtower | 2015 | 70 | Action / Infection |
| The Dead 2: India | 2015 | 70 | Action / Infection |
| Zombie Hunter | 2013 | 70 | Action / Infection |
| Bird Box | 2018 | 69 | Action / Horror / Possession |
| Exit Humanity | 2011 | 69 | Action / Infection |
| Ravenous | 2017 | 68 | Action / Infection |
| The Night Eats The World | 2018 | 67 | Suspense / Infection |
| Trench 11 | 2017 | 66 | Action / Horror |
| Zoombies | 2016 | 65 | Awesomely Bad |
| Zombie Apocalypse | 2011 | 64 | Action / Infection |
| Red Spring | 2017 | 63 | Action / Infection |
| Anna And The Apocalypse | 2017 | 55 | Musical / Infection |
| Bong of the Living Dead | 2017 | 54 | Action / Infection |
| Day of the Dead: Bloodline | 2018 | 51 | Action / Infection |
| Dead Don't Die in Dallas | 2019 | 51 | Action / Infection / LGBTQ |
| Disaster L.A. | 2014 | 50 | Action |
| Within the Woods of Undead County | 2016 | 49 | Action / Infection |
| I Am Alone | 2015 | 48 | Action / Infection |
| Valentine DayZ | 2018 | 47 | Action / Infection / Awesomely Bad |
| Savageland | 2015 | 46 | Horror / Drama |
| Hostile | 2017 | 40 | Action / Infection |
| Another World | 2014 | 35 | Action / Infection |
| KL24: Zombies | 2017 | 34 | Action / Infection |
| Antisocial 2 | 2015 | 33 | Action / Infection |
| Antisocial | 2013 | 32 | Action / Infection |
| Dead 7 | 2016 | 31 | Action / Infection |
| Pandemic | 2016 | 30 | Action / Infection |
| Last Rites Of The Dead | 2019 | 20 | Drama / Thriller |
| The Horde | 2016 | 11 | Action / Gore |
| Zombie with a Shotgun | 2019 | 4 | Infection / Drama |
| Soon Enough | 2018 | 3 | Action / Drama |
| Range 15 | 2016 | 2 | Comedy / Action |
| Eyes Of The Dead | 2015 | 1 | Action / Infection |
| Broadcast Dead | 2018 | 0 | Horror / Thriller |
| Dead End | 2003 | 0 | Horror / Thriller |