If you’ve ever seen so much as one zombie movie in your life, then you’ve got a general idea of how things are going to go; hordes of the flesh-eating undead will whittle down a sprawling cast of characters, several of them will get bitten, the world will fall into ruin, and on and on it goes. However, It Stains the Sands Red took a novel approach to a familiar setup, even if it didn’t win everyone over.
A 67 percent approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes indicates that co-writer and director Colin Minihan had crafted an above-average survival story that gleefully subverts the tropes and trappings embedded in over 50 years of zombie storytelling, whereas a 39 percent tally from users highlights that it might not be quite as riveting as you’d think.
The simple-yet-ingenious story is easily It Stains the Sands Red‘s biggest selling point, though, with Brittany Allen’s Molly finding herself stranded in the desert as the planet falls into disrepair amidst the zombie uprising. However, she’s not dealing with an army or even a squad, but a single shuffling creature that seems to follow her everywhere she goes.
Having an entire feature revolve around a solitary zombie tracking a single character across the barren wasteland is a neat conceit, and whether or not you care for the end result, FlixPatrol naming it as one of the most-watched titles on iTunes does at least make it clear there’s a lot of people making a point of deciding for themselves.
