Plan Z (2016) User Reviews

Welcome to the end of days...

[paul_haakonsen · 5/10 · 19 November 2016]

Anything even remotely zombie and it has my attention. However, I can't say that I had any particular hopes to "Plan Z" prior to watching it. I just sat down to watching it and would let it either impress or fail to impress as it would.

So what was the verdict? Well, mildly impressed. "Plan Z" certainly did have potential, especially because this takes places during the first stages of a zombie outbreak. And it was done nicely enough in a way that put the audience in the shoes right alongside with Craig (played by Stuart Brennan).

However, it was the shoddy and questionable camera work that failed to impress me. And it actually turned into a thing of frustration. I really loathe it when a camera is swinging to and forth all over the place, which often was the case in "Plan Z".

But also the sense of a rather shallow storyline helped to steer the movie away from being impressive. The story pretty much just easily strafe over the events of an outbreak and takes you from point A to point B way too fast, letting everything in between just slip through the cracks.

And it was as if the characters all lacked background, and they could essentially all have been one and the same character, just equipped with a different face. Very little effort was put into the characters to flesh them out and give them character. Sure it was nice to see how Craig prepared for what was inevitable in the beginning of the movie, but after that, he just became another faceless character like the rest of the characters in the movie.

Director Stuart Brennan had some vision, but just seemed to eager to make a movie that showed progression. A lot of details and time to set up a believable story and setting just fell to the floor.

I was, however, fairly entertained by the movie as a whole, because it does have some good aspects to it as well. However, as an addition to the zombie genre "Plan Z" just didn't bring anything new or memorable. It just didn't have what it took to play the big league.

If you enjoy the zombie genre, as I do, then by all means do take the time to sit down and watch "Plan Z". Just don't expect to be blown away. "Plan Z" lands a five out of ten stars rating from me.

Plan A - Y must have been taken.

[TherzThz · 3/10 · 1 November 2016]

The premise of this movie is pretty basic. At the beginning of a zombie epidemic a photographer sees all the signs and enacts his ZOMBIE PLAN. Not bad. The problem with this film is the low budget and terrible plan. For example he tools up with weapons at the start, but uses random junk around his house. Like a steak knife and a cheap non-industrial crowbar. Then he gets his bug out gear together, and again, it's all junk. So if you're into the survival sub-culture you can pretty much look down on this guy and all his "planning".

There is a lot of narration by a super cool and level headed sounding voice. I guess it's supposed to give the audience prompts as to what the main character is going through. But again, his plan is so lousy and ill thought out that I'm left wondering if we should be following someone else instead, like the maybe the narrator himself.

There's some action sure, but it's pretty low budget and never feels very tense. The characters are poorly developed as we only start meeting them after 'Z Day', so it's all survivors guilt and anxiety driving the conversations.

This movie is really just a poor mans '28 Days Later'. I'd say the redeeming part is the music, it's good during the fight scenes. But after a while the narration becomes tiresome and the blood smeared on everybody's face just looks tacky. It's too much eye rolling for some occasional rock music to save.

Just to save you some time; the guys plan is: "Wait at my house for as long as I can, and then go to the country". And that's pretty much the plot. Oh but wait, then the survivors decide they're going to fight back and kill all the zombies right as the movie ends. But they are incapable of doing that so it's a stupid note to end on. Like, if you just bashed a zombies head in with a rock how does that qualify you to kill 40 million zombies?

This movie is an unintentional joke. The characters are poorly organised under supplied, unskilled, and virtually unarmed. But the film tries to put them forward as humanities great hope without giving us any real reason to think so. They do what anybody without a plan would do anyway and it shows.

3 out of 10

I am now history

[nogodnomasters · 4/10 · 11 September 2017]

Craig (Stuart Brennan) is a monotone photographer who narrates much of the film. He has planned for the viral zombie apocalypse which is get supplies and hunker down...and when things run out, go live on an island somewhere. He must ignore cries for help. His companion is his annoying sniveling friend Bill (Mark Paul Wake). This is a gun free zombie film with zombies being bludgeoned to death.

There was plenty of blood, but we don't see the crushed skulls. Craig prides himself of his ultimate plan which doesn't include things like gas cans, siphoning hose, protective clothing, chlorine/alcohol to kill those blood-borne pathogens which he calmly leaves on his face for much of the film. Gas pumps don't work if there is no electricity, neither should store lights be on in the background. Was that the sound of cars driving by while they were talking in the woods? Low budget film not well thought out, acted, or directed.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

Funnily Bad

[griffin-88134 · 2/10 · 18 November 2016]

Acting, Screenplay, Editing, Make Up. It was all bad. The story is just awful and the characters are pretty much not there. This won some awards but I honestly can't see how. Its like a student movie and I was expecting a lot more than I saw. Its actually quite funny how bad this is.

The voice-over is attempting to convince us that this man's 'Plan' make him some sort of survival guru when really his plan is to stay indoors and then go to the countryside when they run out of food. Thats not a plan. There's a part where they leave the house to look for the neighbours car keys. They look inside the house even though the main character saw the neighbours go outside and get eaten trying to get to their car. They would obviously have had the car keys on them when they got eaten! Unless the reason they got eaten was because they forgot the keys! So why are they looking INSIDE the house?

There are some weird flashback sequences that don't make sense and randomly injected characters turn up from no where that make little sense and the ending of the 4 of them deciding to kill 40 million zombies is just so unrewarding as a viewer. I'm all for independent cinema but this is just bad. I was laughing at it by the end and wasn't the only one.

Embarrassingly awful

[tcarty-29367 · 1/10 · 9 July 2017]

Right, spoilers, I'm going to rip into this film because its shocking. In every way. It's more like a college project rather than a full on movie production.

The lead actor 'Plan Man' i'll call him, delivers such a one-dimensional, boring and one of the most contrived performances I've watched. Frankly, the whole cast are unconvincing and at times irritating. Plan Mans mate shakes like he is in an earthquake. The plan itself is NOT a plan, its just sit down and move when things become untenable.

ADR in this film is the worst aspect. The people involved in the recording of the sound need to go back to college to re- learn their job. The sound is muffled at best, poor audio clips pasted in, music constantly plays without pause, the ADR is clearly recorded in post production because the sync is way off and the reverb and echo are polar opposite of what the voices would sound like in the actual scene. Plan Man has ONE tone of voice and its an overly self important serious action man impression. It's all terrible.

The last half of the film could be a Renualt advert.

You cant hear the voices for the rain.

The plot is just bland, predictable and by the numbers. There's nothing nuanced or interesting. Its just typical B movie awful, awkward laziness.

They compare themselves to Spartans at the end. Get a grip. You drove a van a hundred miles north, you hardly fended off an army of thousands, you just drove past them.

The blood looks like paint. The ending is sequel bait. 'Lets kill all the zombies', right, erm, OK then but your all nervous beyond belief just looking at one so, are you all going to transform into zombie slaying machines overnight? No. You'll all die through naivety and taking yourselves far too seriously, which is what this whole film does

Its basically Emmerdale: Day Z

There's nothing redeeming about this junk

Don't watch this film. Watch Here Alone if you want a good zombie survival film.

Will cause seizures and dizziness

[orionhi · 1/10 · 16 September 2020]

You can't cover up bad acting and terrible special effects by shaking the camera more and more. There are segments that I don't know why they bothered filming because they shake the camera so much you can't tell what you're looking at. Skip this movie if just ate. Better yet, skip this movie altogether

Spoilers follow ...

[parry_na · 3/10 · 23 February 2017]

As plans go, Plan Z isn't the greatest. It consists of stocking up on supplies and then staying indoors until the food runs out before heading off to 'somewhere quiet.' It deals, of course, with a zombie outbreak, illustrated economically by scenes of the slowly staggering Living Dead smeared with blood amidst a few overturned cars.

The decision to leave for the countryside occurs 28 days after the initial outbreak (as an on screen caption tells us) which makes it pretty clear where this film's influence comes from. '28 Days Later (2002)' was a ground-breaking UK success, which this clearly does not have the budget to emulate. And yet, by confining much of the initial outbreak to the area surrounding Craig, a very isolated man, we are treated to a very personal, even intimate vision of the apocalypse that negates cities bathed in CGI twilight and hordes of decomposing trouble-makers. Craig is played by Stuart Brennan, whom also wrote and directed this. His sole friend for the first half is Bill (Paul Mark Wake).

Much fleeing from underwhelming cadavers ensues, often to the music of a soft-rock music soundtrack. As they travel to the Isle of Skye, they meet up with a few more people including Seren (Victoria Morrison), who has the annoying habit of chuckling after every pronouncement. Sadly after this time, such a story as there is has run out of steam. Listening to the characters' earnest strategies and travel arrangements punctuated by curiously gore-free zombie attacks soon becomes, if you will, pretty lifeless. It is as if the crew suddenly lost interest and decided to end production as soon as they could.

Good bleak landscapes evoke a feeling of desolation amidst this minimalist outbreak, but ultimately 'Plan Z' doesn't have much of story to tell.

"That was close..."

[goldenarrow-99823 · 5/10 · 30 March 2018]

I'd checked out quite a few reviews of this from fellow Letterboxd-ers and, while managing to avoid any serious spoilers, it was already very clear what the consensus of opinion was on this film.

Now I'm not the sort of awkward pedant who'd pretend to hate it because it was popular and easy, to make me look all dangerous and interesting ... but I would argue my reasons for liking unpopular films (such as R.I.P.D, Daredevil (with Ben Affleck!) even Batman and Robin which my brother loathes and I always stick up for, just to piss him off - if explained clearly enough and with reasonable examples for the basis of your opinion, then who am I to tell you, you're wrong?!

In spite of all the above, I actually found this hilarious.

Found myself take an immediate dislike to the way He carries himself in front of the camera, speaks in a Michael Madson-esque lazy drawl and just instantly rubbed me up the wrong way.

That in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, I appreciate a good villain. However in this, he's the 'hero'? Nah... really?

What would he do if the zombocalypse occurred when he was off on one of his international photography jaunts? Hadn't planned for that had you smartypants?

He comes across like some kind of Badly Drawn Boy/Chuck Norris hybrid, even when he's just heard the grisly sounds of people being torn to bits and eaten right outside his front door. I contemplated how it would have affected the film if the main man was Ewan Bremner, playing it like Spud. Instead of barely raising a designer-scruffy eyebrow when coming to terms with Zombocalypse, he'd be running around, crying, swearing and shooting up smack.

This would have made it a brilliant film.

Ps - If nothing else, I am grateful to this film for introducing to me to John Fairhurst whose bruising groove 'No Shelter' (wow! It's like they gave it some thought) blew me away. I'm off to Emusic now to see if they've got his stuff included in my subscription.

Deals with regular people in an end of world scenario

[tkell31 · 6/10 · 23 March 2020]

It's obvious this is low budget, but some of the common complaints about the movie dont seem to realize it. Sure the effects arent great...they cost money. The shaky camera isnt style choice it's out of necessity. The cant afford numerous camera angles, tons of extras, and elaborate green screens so the shaky camera is intended to show the chaos, fear and intensity that the characters are dealing with. At least that was my take. Clearly many things happen off camera for the same reason. And I'm all for it. Force people to imagine the worst rather than try to come up with visuals to support the message.

Despite the budget they manage to make a comprehensive movie opening shortly before the outbreak, to getting out of the city, and finally finding their "end game" shelter. We follow the main character as he runs into strangers, picks up some additional members for his party, loses some, and get a little background on all.

I'm not saying it's polished or even particularly unique, and the end is very cringe, but if you enjoy an individual struggle on a small scale and can overlook the warts I think you might see in it what it maght be like for an average person thrown into this situation. And if not, well didn't cost you anything! Enjoy.

I wanted to like this, but.....

[deralexanderda-29989 · 3/10 · 22 January 2022]

I wanted to like this film, but I got bored after about 20 minutes. The acting is decent enough; in all honesty it's well above independent standards, but the writing is cliched. You can see it coming a mile off. This is what lets this production down. Having said that; I believe that future endeavors will be much better.

Well worth a watch!

[ianscoles · 8/10 · 18 November 2016]

I have to say that I watched this film with reserved expectations, for me independent films carry with them a certain stigmata. Unlike a blockbuster that can cover poor elements with budget or cast, independent films feel a lot more exposed to criticism.

The good news is, because I had managed my own expectations what I got was a very enjoyable story-led, zombie thriller. I was engaged with the characters and story because throughout the film I felt genuine tension. The score and cinematography were superb. I often caught myself admiring the quality of the shots, the consideration of the angle and the accompanying score. There was one particular shot of the Isle of Skye that was stunning.

One previous film likened this to a 'Poor man's 28 days later', well I actually consider this to be praise. I love the atmosphere and style of that film and for Plan Z to compared I think is a great feat considering the difference in cast and budget.

If I had to be overly critical, there was one plot point that left me confused to what actually had happened (I don't want to give away spoilers but it's a major point of the film) and there was one piece of music towards the end of the filmed that didn't like it mixed very well and was out of place.

When watching, please don't expect a Hollywood blockbuster or compare it to the big Zombie films as it won't compare. Have a bit of perspective to how it was achieved and I think you will be very pleasantly surprised.

It works

[Fridaythe13th12463578 · 6/10 · 16 March 2020]

There's some great stuff in "Plan Z." There are also flaws in the plot and the editing. Still, as lower budget zombie movies go, you can do far worse, several times over. Overall, I like what the crew and actors put together. Some of the movie shows real talent. Bonus: Lacking a budget, the makers had to rely on a lot of implied and outside-the-frame graphic stuff. I liked that, nice change of pace. I'll watch for Stuart Brennan's work.

Finally, did I miss something in the first part of the movie, or was his mate stuck in the toilet for a week before he thought to call his best friend?

Plan Z Worked for Me

[hunsletramone · 29 December 2016]

Plan Z is one of the better zombie movies out there , and there is quite a few zombie movies about these days i am glad to say. but not all good though like this one, i liked this zombie film a lot , never got tired of it, a simple but good story , sort of thing i would have done under the same situation , in what the main character was trying to do as in trying to get to the Isle of Skye from Dunfirmline in Scotland as it is less populated so would be safer .And as one reviewer put some lovely scenery up there as seen in the film . Stuart Brennan and Mark Paul Wake played great lead parts, as everyone who acted in this film , not loads of action in the film but enough to sustain it and keep me occupied and happy that i watched Plan Z.

What's with all the bad reviews?

[AndyVanScoyoc · 5/10 · 30 November 2019]

Obviously, most people don't watch as many zombie movies as I do, because if they did, this one wouldn't be reviewed so harshly.

Oh...wait... I get it! I has a plot and isn't just mindless violence that the sheep like to be spoon fed.

If that's what you're looking for, keep looking, because this movie, isn't it.

Thoughtful, pacing not bad and well executed.

I figured on being disappointed, yet again, with the Indie market's idea today of filmmaking.

Glad I was wrong. Worth a watch...

I lasted 30 seconds

[paudman · 1/10 · 7 June 2022]

... or however long it took the titles to start. Another one of those movies where you sit down to watch a good horror, and within seconds it sounds like a comedy. Maybe it's meant to be one? Either way, it just lost me in the first few seconds, and that was it - the same way as the remake of Dawn of the Dead did with that dreadful music. It's a pity, I had hopes, but hey-ho, that's the movie business, and so I went off and found something better to waste a cup of coffee and some Toffypops on. Next!

A mixed bag but worth a watch

[jbloggs-80940 · 4/10 · 30 June 2017]

In a packed genre this was worth a viewing. First let's deal with the negatives. The characters outside the lead were not developed sufficiently to lead us to have an sympathetic emotional reaction at the end, some of the flashbacks were superfluous and the lead characters narration at times was hard to decipher. The initial shots of lead character in exotic locations call in question the application of the film's budget and seem out of place. Use of blood daubed faces was overused, the obvious references to big budget Z films flattered to deceive and did they really expect us to believe a guy was running a shop apparently oblivious to the fact the apocalypse had begun a month earlier? However there were some interesting elements here. Firstly other critics have ridiculed the "plan" as boring and unspectacular but for me this felt real, isn't this what it would actually be like? Also I appreciated the way you think the ending is previewed at the start but this is not the case, nicely done, however the jump to rescuing the girls does feel that a solid 10 mins were cut from the film without warning. I liked the camera style and music and I felt that there were several scenes where the suspense was very well handled. Overall a good effort and better than most.

Better Than Expected

[Richard_Dominguez · 6/10 · 2 November 2016]

While I Don't Think This Was A Very Good Zombie Movie (I Thought It Was More Of A Character Story Than Say A Zombie Movie), I Think It Had A Great Plot And A Good Allegory For Making It Through Life ... Not Just A Bad Time But Through Life In General ... Be Prepared, Have A Plan, Stick To Your Plan, Don't Be Afraid To Change/Amend The Plan, Always Do The Right Thing, Do Unto Others ... And So Forth ... The Acting Isn't The Worse I Have Seen In A Zombie Movie ... I Was Interested Enough To See How It Ended ... I Imagine For The General American Viewer A Zombie Movie That Is Slow Paced (Typical Of English Movies) Could Seem Boring But This Movie Is Anything But Boring ... I Found This Movie To Be More In Line With "Maggie" (An Excellent Character Study Around A Zombie Apocalypse Featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger) As Say A Typical Zombie Movie ... My IMDb Rating 6 Out Of 10

Low budget perfection

[adamgemmab · 10/10 · 29 September 2020]

Here in the uk, we're not going to get an unlimited amount of guns and ammunition. We've got a crow bar, cricket bat, a hammer and a rock. It's a real take on how we will live with zoms..... for a low budget, local film, this is perfection.

A good independent effort

[lkinguk · 7/10 · 5 October 2021]

One reviewer here said that small independent films such as Plan Z are more vulnerable to criticism because higher budget productions can hide behind special effects and their cast - they were absolutely spot on.

I think it was a good effort and I liked the main character, which is more than I can say for many other zombie productions. There were very few actually Zombie scenes which was understandable with the budget constraints. Its not Dawn or Day of the Dead but if you want 90 minutes of entertainment then give it a look..

Give it a try.

[tcomx · 7/10 · 8 August 2021]

A bit bored this afternoon and this drew my attention on Prime. It is low budget and there are probably more continuity errors than I care to remember. However the characters are all believable with no-one thinking they are Rambo. They also handle the various situations in a believable way.

If you can have a believable zombie movie, this is probably close to it. Gritty, lots of blood and different to just about every Hollywood zombie movie.

Real life as we know it in the UK.

[bungle-30085 · 10/10 · 31 December 2017]

10/10, I give this review because here in the UK, this is how it would be. This is a perfect take and good guide for us!!!!!

Graded on a Curve

[scythertitus · 6/10 · 6 December 2018]

This movie was clearly made on zero budget, as akin to the previous similar zombie effort of Colin, as such you have to consider this and appreciate how much of a movie this actually turned out to be.

There is tension and compelling action, and the whole thing doesn't feel like filer, despite most of it taking place in a couple of small locations. The narration can get annoying but you can see that it is what stitches the filmed scenes together and is necessary. The effects mainly rely on editing and imagination, but again with no budget this makes sense. Generally the editing and directing are what make this any good. The only flaw is the writing, it is quite simplistic and the point of 'survival vs fighting back' is repeated over and over again despite the filmmakers message becoming clear about a third of the way into the movie.

Overall this isn't a bad effort considering the clear lack of budget, there have been a lot worse zombie movies made with a lot more to work with, so definitely worth a watch if you are looking to make something for nothing yourself.

Not bad

[pluciano-2 · 6/10 · 19 February 2022]

As other reviewers have noted this film was done on a low budget but they made the most of it. It's a decent character study. It certainly deserves more than a 4.8.

One of the best zombie movies out there

[ali-22459 · 9/10 · 21 November 2020]

I was gripped right from the beginning. This movie is terrifying in its reality. Don't watch this for glamorous special effects. There is nothing glamorous about this movie. It is gritty, dirty, a little rough around the edges and supported by 2 incredibly solid performances by the lead characters. Both are utterly believable. You can feel their terror, the tension, the chaos and the claustrophobia of their predicament. While all the terror is going on there is time for a little back story for each main character which adds another layer of interest. The movie flicks successfully between past and future scenes. The sound can be a little rough at times and it is easy to point out the errors of continuity or sense on occasions but hey, this is raw art but I'll bet you this movie was made on a shoestring which makes it all the more remarkable. Definitely worth watching if you're into the genre - it's one of the best.